Shadows of the future
by Ofunu
Summary: Harry has not had a good life so far.His parents and everyone else seem to forget he is there, unlike his twin the BWL. But everything is about to change for him when six mysterious beings arrive to him with an even more mysterious package. Future-Aware!Powerhouse!Darkish!Political!Harry.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

The pale skinned man walked slowly towards the house at the end of the street, it was a cold night of October, the last night of the month actually, he felt giddy just knowing that in less than an hour he would deal with the only obstacle in his path to absolute greatness. He got into the garden of the house, and neared the door with anticipation, soon blood would run inside the building and everything would be over, the world would be at his feet forever.

He stood now in front of the ivory door, he would have knocked but that was for peasants, he was above such things, there would be no closed doors for him, so he blasted it away.

"Lily it's him! Quickly run with the kids!"—he heard from inside, and smirked at the idea that anyone could even phantom the thought of running from him.

He was in a good mood today; he decided he would give himself a treat in the forms of screams, particularly those from the people inside the house. But that would have to wait, he was here first and foremost to deal with a minor nuisance, albeit one that could become a great one if left alone, that wouldn't do. He stunned the man with a quite dark version of the most common stunner spell, this one would stun each and every nerve in the body by way of sending some quite painful pulses directly to the brain, the man wouldn't be able to scream, that was unfortunate, but his nerves would be more sensible once the curse was released, ensuring he would scream louder later when he was free to play with him and his mudblood wife, that thought made him smile.

He climbed the stairs to the second floor of the house, he could hear clearly the crying of a baby, that was odd, why was there just one baby crying? Oh well, it wouldn't matter in a few minutes, finally he reached the room from where the crying came, he entered to find the mother of the children holding tightly onto them, trying to soothe their fears away her back facing him blocking his path to her kids, how endearing, not even bothering to wait for her to turn around he stunned her with the same spell he did her husband and turned to the infants, both had black hair, as black as the night without stars, and both had startling green eyes, although one, the quiet one, had a gleam of intelligence in his eyes. Voldemort knew this kid could grow to be his undoing, that intelligence shinning in his eyes gave it away, the kid would crave for knowledge, and knowledge was power, he couldn't let the kid come into that power, the fact that he was looking at him directly and without fear just added more to his belief, without hesitation he pointed his wand to the kid's head almost at point blank and uttered the words of the killing curse.

"Avada Kedabra"—and the green light was out of the wooden tool heading towards the infant, time seemed to force as his eyes gleefully watched the last moments of the young life. However the kid had another idea altogether, it was not a very known fact that infants, due to their more innocent souls were more attuned to magic than grownups, and the child knew from the moment the ugly man said the words that he wanted to harm him, the prone figure of his mother not far away didn't help change that opinion. He knew the pretty green light coming his way was not good for him so he wished for protection, he thought of his mother's green eyes, of how lovingly they always looked at him and his brother, how he felt protected whenever he was in her arms, and willed that same feeling onto himself. Tom Marvolo Riddle's glee disappeared as he saw the green spell disperse in front of the child he had aimed to kill, but it didn't disappear, it was as if it had exploded just for it to implode not a second later and turn on him, he had just a second to regret being so close to the child, had he been farther away he could have dodged, but being so close, almost at point blank, made that impossible, so he was hit by his own curse, his own magic, he screamed in rage as his body died, his soul was then expulsed far away from there by some unseen force.

The magical backlash propelled everything away, the child hit his head on the wall and loss consciousness at the same time he received a singularly shaped wound, and as Voldemort's fractured soul was banished a fragment of it detached itself from the whole and wishing to survive latched onto the kid's wound as its lifeline. Meanwhile his brother, who had been trying to hide under the crib, was launched towards his mother, whose body was lying against one of the walls by now, the crib itself exploded and the some chunks of it cut deeply into his right hand in a V shaped injure.

With Voldemort's body dead and his soul so weak after the endeavor of being detached from its body the stunners on both Lily and James lifted, just as a group of people led by an elderly looking man appeared outside the building, the group known as the order of the phoenix found and woke James as they entered the building, they were about to begin interrogating him on what happened but were interrupted as they hears cries coming from upside, James Potter found strength again and stood up before quickly climbing the stairs and entering the room, followed by the order, to find his wife crying joyfully while hugging the child she had in her arms, he felt relief at the sight of his Lily, but his worries came back with a vengeance as he realized she had only one kid in her arms, he frantically looked around for his other child and found him unconscious not far away so he went and took the child in his arms hugging him tightly as if he was seeing him for the first time after a long and painful time.

The elderly man, Dumbledore, was meanwhile taking in the scene in front of him, he knew Tom was going to attack and had purposefully delayed the order, had Voldemort visited the Longbottoms he would have acted immediately since they only had one child and if they were attacked that would automatically mean that Neville was the chosen one, but with the Potters it was different, they had twins so he had to let Voldemort mark the chosen before acting.

"It's wonderful that you are all safe"—he said with a tired voice, but with a hint of relief now that he knew who was going to be his weapon, though maybe some annoyance was in there as well, nobody noticed this though—"but I'm afraid I have some bad news to give, and some good as well, but I will have to ask all of the members of the order to leave for now, I need to speak with James and Lily privately"—some members hesitated to leave but soon afterwards most everyone was gone, except Sirius and Remus, both of them close friends of the inhabitants of the house.

"It seems the secret keeper betrayed us"—said Remus slowly turning towards Sirius and preparing his wand to attack, but he was stopped by James.

"Remus, don't be hasty, first of all, Sirius was not our secret keeper"—Remus looked at him surprised.

"But you told the order that he was the secret keeper!"

"Exactly, and he would be the obvious choice, so we decided for Peter instead"—chocked out Lily, still holding onto her son for dear life.

"Peter? They must have tortured him! He was not with us so they must still have him! We must rescue him!"—said the werewolf frantically.

"I'm afraid Remus, that that is not plausible…"—started Dumbledore but Remus interrupted him.

"Surely you don't mean he is dead already?"

"No, that's not what I mean. What I mean is that the fidelius is a tricky charm and it wouldn't be a good protection if the secret could be tortured out of a person, no, the secret can only be told willingly, or else the keeper won't be able to tell at all"—said the elder man with a grave voice.

"That means"—said Sirius before growling and disappearing, Remus soon followed him with fire in his eyes.

"What do you wanted to tell us Dumbledore?"—asked James, his voice heavy after finding out his supposed friend had betrayed them, he just wanted the day to be over and be able to think of something else.

"It seems Voldemort has been banished for now"

"What do you mean for now, Dumbledore?"—asked James, unconsciously hugging his child tighter—"You mean he is not dead?"

"I strongly doubt he is, he most likely has been weakened but he will return someday, though not soon I would expect"

"How is that possible?"—asked Lily.

"It seems young Henry here is the child the prophecy spoke about"—he said looking at the child Lily was holding.

"How are you so sure it was Henry?"—asked the father of the children.

"He was the closest to Lily, and his hand has been marked by what I believe was the mark the prophecy spoke of, the V of Voldemort, what I believe happened here is that Voldemort didn't wait a second as he entered the room and launched the killing curse at Lily, but Henry here somehow blocked it using wandless magic and returned it to Voldemort himself, the mark in his hand is the result of such action"—he said with certainty in his voice—"and the magical backlash of his banishment is what caused the room to be such a mess, I'm sorry for young Henry seeing as he has such a huge burden being just a toddler"

"What should we do?"

"Be the best parent you can, for now the danger has gone away, albeit temporarily, Henry will have to face his fate someday, he deserve a normal childhood before he has to grow up, so for now just give him that, when the proper time comes he will have to be trained"

"Are you sure this is the right course of action to take?"

"As sure as I can be, I think that for now you have had a very extenuating night so we should go to the quarters for you and the children to rest, this house is not safe tonight"

Had Dumbledore known more about Horrocruxes he would have been aware that they always had a defense mechanism, but alas he never investigated the matter further, as leader of the light he couldn't be suspected of dwelling in such dark territories. In the case of Voldemort's most recent anchor's defense was that whoever didn't wish the best for the vessel would just dismiss it as unimportant, Lily and James as parents couldn't help but wish the very best for both their sons thus the defense didn't affect them, but the old wizard on the other hand only though of the chosen as a weapon to use against a dark lord, he didn't wish the best for the child, he was the only one who knew the whole prophecy, Lily and James were aware of its existence but only knew what Dumbledore allowed them to know, so he knew the child had to die for Voldemort to truly depart this world onto the next great adventure, with that in mind it was no wonder why the thought of Harry being the actual chosen never even crossed his mind at all, he just dismissed the boy, and it would prove to be his greatest mistake yet.

.-._.-._.

As all this happened another pale man appeared near the train station of King's cross, his hair as red as blood and his eyes were as red as fire, his skin made him look like a corpse, he wore a black leather trouser, leather boots to go with it, a grey silk shirt under a black leather vest, his name, Horus.

Horus walked decidedly towards the department building across the station; he entered the elevator and pressed the top floor's button. It took a minute before he reached it and had to climb a set of stairs to access the last story which was hidden to anyone who didn't know of its existence. He entered the only apartment in the whole floor, the place was big and luxurious, but Horus didn't bother with anything there and walked directly to the end of the big aisle and crossed the wall that was there, the wall dissolved like it was made of smoke before reforming itself once again; hiding what was inside the secret room. Inside the room there was only one thing, a mirror placed on the floor looking upsides, the red head stood on the mirror and a second later he was gone.

He appeared on top of another similar mirror in the middle of a forest, as he appeared a stone barrier rose from the ground and surrounded him and he felt his magic diminish a great deal, the wall had four pillars, each sporting the statue of a cherub holding a bow and all four of them pointing said bow at him, Horus sighed, annoyed that his master was so paranoid, and annoyed that he had to put up with a master altogether.

"Horus, grand general of the army of shades, the Master called for me"

After saying that, the wall and the cherubs disappeared into the ground once again. He felt his power being restored to normal and kept walking down the only path in front of him, the forest was big and held a good number of magical and dangerous creatures, though no one of said creatures had ever attacked a member of the army of shades or ally of the master. Horus reached a huge lake in the middle of the forest but kept walking, towards the body of water, as he neared it a stone path made itself visible allowing him to get further into the lake, by the middle of it another wall rose from the lake along with a isle, he reached the wall and a metal gate appeared in front of him, allowing him access to the fortress.

Inside the walls there were good four hectares of empty land, Horus surmised the ground for a second before continuing his march, as he started walking a stone rose from the ground and flew towards the center of the land, and then another followed suit, and another and another, this continued until in front of him there was a three story manor, the building strongly resembling the carapace of a turtle. The pale skinned man entered the building and made his way to the upper floor were the master was sure to be.

He reached a huge aisle and a wooden gate stood at the end of it, he started walking but was stopped by the appearance of one of his more annoying allies.

"A pleasure seeing you around here, Horus, long time since the last occasion the master summoned you"—said a high pitched voice behind him. And as Horus turned to face it he saw a man with hair like his own, his hair though was shorter, he couldn't see he face as he was wearing a featureless white mask.

"Pedrolino, fancy seeing you away from the gate, usually you keep guard closer to the master"—said Horus in an even voice, he might be the stronger shade that ever existed, but Pedrolino, and those other four annoyances were the most effective when using their power, the five personal guards of the master.

"Master sent me to get you, but since you were on your way anyway I decided to just wait here"

"Never thought of you as a lazy bum, it seems there are still surprises for me in this world after all"

"Are you two done with your chitchat? The master wants to see us all now"—said another voice, this one coming from the wooden gate, there stood a taller man who like them had red hair and like Pedrolino wore a featureless white mask.

"Brighella"—greeted Horus.

"Horus. Come on, the master has waited long enough already"—with that he disappeared behind the gate. Horus and Pedrolino following after him.

Inside there stood other two individuals waiting for them, and like Pedrolino and Brighella they wore white mask without any real difference.

"Took your sweet time Horus"—said the closest one.

"Mezzetino, Pulcinella, stop trying to delay Horus anymore, the master wants to see us all so move your arse"—said Brighella and they kept walking until they reached a throne where a man with a glass mask sat calmly waiting for them.

"Master, you wanted to see me?"—asked Horus, with not little annoyance in his voice, he loathed his master, he hated him, but he couldn't make a move against him, and neither could any other member of the army that served him, they were bound to do his will since he learned their true names, this man had learned all of their names one by one, until they all were forced to serve him.

"I wanted you all here. Arlecchino, stand besides your brothers"-said the masked man seated on the throne, a shadow behind him moved and revealed another masked redhead, but unlike the other four, his mask had the features of a stoic face and was decorated with red feathers, he was taller than everyone present, measuring up to seven feet, the giant walked around the throne and joined the rest of the masked men and Horus—"Horus, grand general of the army of shades and the Zanni, my personal guards, I have a mission for you all"—that picked their curiosity, it was no secret the elite of the whole army was in that room at that moment, a mission for the six of them ought to be something really interesting—"and to ensure you accomplish it I will be forced to give it to you by your true given names"—and that made them wary of the whole deal—"Horus, you will be the leader for this mission, Arlecchino will be your second and can override your orders if he deems it necessary"—he then took out a necklace and a small package wrapped in parchment—"Your mission is as follows"—he looked directly at Horus—"Blödhgala"—Horus grimaced at the mention of his true name—"Könungrsevarinya"—the five masked men stood to attention as one, for they were one and the same and the name belonged to them all—"the six of you are to use this necklace, it will send you to a place of my choosing, once there you will destroy the necklace and assume your bird forms and Blödhgala will deliver this package to one Harold James Potter, though you might find him being called Harry, you six are to look out for the best interests of the child and protect him from harm, he will surely assist Hogwarts, you are to follow him there Blödhgala under the pretence of his familiar and Könungresevarinya will protect him from the shadows, you are to follow his orders as if they were mine unless you are convinced that doing so would be detrimental for the child, these orders are bound to your soul by your true-by-magic-given name and you must follow them at all times"—neither of the shades said a thing, they had to obey either if they agreed with the orders or not, since the orders were given with their true names being used.

"Why are we required to do this? What is so important about the child?"—asked Horus, not happy about being stuck with babysitting.

"That's of no consequence to you, oh and before I forget, Blödhgala, Könungrsevarinya, neither of you is to try and find the child's true-by-magic-given name, this order is bound to your soul by your true-by-magic-given name and you must follow it at all times"—this grated on Horus' nerves, why was the child so important that they were ordered to protect him to such extent? Even from them! Unfortunately he wouldn't get that answer any time soon, and it seemed that the Zanni were as curious as him.

The master stood up from his throne and approached them, he gave the package to Horus and the necklace's chain multiplied until the six of them were linked to the trinket which resembled a platinum hourglass with four rings surrounding it, as the master let the trinket go the ring closest to the hourglass started whirling around it, then the second and the third until all four were turning and spinning around the small device, everything around them was blurry and confusing. From the master's point of view they had just disappeared in front of him.

"Finally I will know if my plan succeeded at all or it was all for naught, either way all will be over in a few seconds"—he then took out his glass mask revealing a man with black and untamed hair and green eyes with a hard expression on his face, he made a few movements with his wand and felt all the protections disappear, it wasn't more than a few second before a group of people appeared surrounding him, the dubbed Order of the Phoenix, who had been looking for him since he was 15, he looked around and spotted James Potter, the new leader of the Order since Dumbledore died seven years prior. The Potter patriarch had lost his right eye long ago to Fenrir Greyback after the werewolf killed one Remus Lupin and James had gone into a mad rampage against him, besides him a red haired woman stood with a hopeful look in her eyes, Lily Potter, there were also older members, like Minerva McGonagall, or younger ones like the Weasleys' children, one of which had a haunted look, Ron Weasley if his memory didn't fail him, after losing his two best friends, Henry Potter to Voldemort and a few months later Hermione Granger to Horus, he had sent him to kill her after she had devised the artifact the order was using to track him down, not that they were successful but one can never be too careful.

"Why did you decide to suddenly appear? You have been hiding for eight years now, no one was able to even find anything on your name or location as if you didn't even exist, however you did that I don't know, and then you appear, what are you planning?"—asked the Order's leader, the master of the departed shades chuckled.

"I just wanted you all here for when everything is over, in a few seconds this universe will be destroyed or I will be dead, either way you lose, I just wanted to relish on your faces when it all came to completion"—he gave a step forward and the floor broke as it let out a bit of lava.

"Harry"—breathed out the red headed woman.

"Who are you speaking of, woman? Harold James Potter ceased to exist long ago, eight years to be more precise, I'm not Harry, and I'm not your son. Remember, you killed him when you decided he was not worth your time. Hm, hehehe, the only reason you have been looking for me at all is because you found out dear Rich was not the actual chosen one and that only I could deal with Voldemort, that according to a prophecy a barmy old fool heard from a fraud, but before that you turned your back on me, you just don't like it when someone turns their back at you"—he gave another step and more lave seeped out from the cracks on the ground.

"What's going on?"—asked James who saw how the cracks were becoming wider and longer, letting out more lava.

"Nothing much, I just set off the apocalypse on us, and no matter where you run to, the world will be destroyed in a few minutes"—as if on cue an earthquake ensued—"it won't be long now, they are about to arrive"

"Who?"—asked a worried James, he had long accepted the lost of his son, every letter they sent and every attempt to contact him were futile, so he was not as attached to him to care if he joined them or not, Lily on the other hand had been depressed from the moment Harry disappeared, it had not helped when Henry died a year later.

"My guards and the grand general of the shades are about to reach their destination, once they do everything here will disappear"

"General of the shades…you mean you are, no, it can't be, you are the master of the shades?"

"That's right, James, it was me all along, the man who ordered death eaters and order members killed evenly, the third party in this little war of ours, but don't worry"—then a huge eruption was heard not far from where they were—"it will be over soon"—and everything exploded.

.-._.-._.

A sigh escaped a being as he looked down to the mortal plane.

"This is the third apocalypse in five hundred years, is it too much to ask for a quiet millennium?"—the being then resigned itself and set to restore reality.

.-._.-._.

"Where do you reckon we are?"—asked Horus to the other five members of their party after they arrived in the middle of a forest. He might hate them for being willingly loyal to the master, but if he had to pass a long time with them he might as well try to be civil about it.

"Honestly I don't have the slightest idea"—answered the silky voice of Arlecchino—"but that is a no matter, we need to do what the master ordered, first we destroy the necklace"

"Already done"—came Brighella's rough voice, the masked man showing them some dust in his hand, which was the trinket not long ago.

"Alright then, Horus you need to deliver that package in your bird form according to the master, we will follow you and stay hidden until necessary"

"Sigh, I hate flying"—nevertheless he dissolved into smoke, which shot to the air, and as he was soaring in the sky the smoke took the form of a red feathered Argentavis holding the package.

"Everybody take off!"—ordered the masked leader and five more specks of smoke took over the sun setting sky, just to take the form of five black Saker Falcons with red beaks and eyes.

Later that night at Godric's Hollow, outside a medium sized house, an eight years old child was crying his eyes out silently, no sobbing or whimpering, just tears falling down his cheeks, he had already been having a bad day as it was, and now his parents had gone out and forgot to take him with them, it was not the first time this happened, but being his birthday it was worse than all those other times before. His expression was beginning to turn from sorrowful to a deep scowl when a way-too-large-for-its-own-good red bird landed in front of him making the earth tremble slightly, the kid looked it up and almost wet his pants, the thing was humongous, not even Hagrid could measure to its height, well, maybe he could, but barely, the bird then raised one of its claws ominously towards him and before Harry could scream a box wrapped in parchment landed on his lap with a thud, he looked at it curiously and then at the bird, which seemed to be waiting for him to do something, he looked at the package and went into the empty house to unwrap it and see what it was.

Meanwhile in the outside the six shades in bird bodies were screaming in their minds.

"_We are in the past! The damn bloody past! We didn't even exist yet!_"

.-._.-._.

**So, what do you think? This is my take on the WBWL twin, dark and maybe evil, intelligent, powerful, and future aware Harry plots.**

**As you might or might have not noticed I'm using lore from the inheritance cycle series, and might take lore from other fantasy series as well for this story.**

**Now some explanations. For those who haven't read Eragon and its sequels, a shade is a magic user and warrior that is created when a wizard summons a spirit or spirits which in some occasions they can't control and take over their body, becoming a shade. They can also be created when the wizard who summons them has an available body for them to take, which might be an alive human or animal, usually humans are used, but they always seem to take a humanoid form. Shades are always cruel and vile since they are created by using dark spirits. Also a shade is really hard to kill since they can take any kind of harm and still survive, they can only be killed when they are pierced through the heart, in the case of Arlecchino and the other Zanni it's even harder since I'm portraying them as being one shade with five bodies, thus you need to kill the five at the same time or your efforts will be for naught.**

**Now their animal forms. Argentavis is an extinct bird which measured up to 11.5 ft of length and 23 ft of wingspan, here is an image so you have a better idea of its size /images_**

**Saker Falcons are birds of prey that still exist; they measure up to 21.5 inches of length and 50.7 inches of wingspan, here another image for you to have a better idea .org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Falco_cherrug_/426px-Falco_cherrug_**

**Their 'true' names, Blödhgala means blood scream, and Könungrsevarinya means king's stars.**

**I hope you like it and I will try to update soon, but I'm trying to find the time to write four stories now so it might take a while.**

**R&R please.**


	2. Chapter 2

Ch.1: Happy birthday Harold Jacobus Potter.

Harry James Potter was a sad kid, a sad eight years old kid. He sat looking at the horizon where his parents and brother had disappeared to not even two minutes ago; they had gone to the zoo to celebrate 'Henry's birthday'; and forgot about him, even though it was his birthday as well. It pained him a great deal that they would forget him on his own birthday, but it wasn't even the first time this happened, not even the tenth or hundredth, he had lost count of how many times they seemed to forget about him long ago.

No one would ever say that the Potters mistreated their son or that they physically abused him. No, what they did was way worse; they didn't even acknowledge he was there. It wasn't always like that, he still remembered times when they were a loving family, when they paid attention to both him and his brother equally, or maybe it was just his imaginations trying to get him to cheer up, however little by little they were focusing more and more on Henry and so did his uncle and godfather, Remus and Sirius respectively, forgetting he was there, with them in the same room.

He had once called on them trying to get their attention when they were going to buy clothes for Henry, which led to a really uncomfortable moment since the Potters were startled by his presence there, like they didn't know he was there, as if he had just appeared from thin air. He had stopped doing it as often, just when it was for something really important, like getting clothes or going on a vacation somewhere out of the country, he couldn't stay alone for long after all, he was just a kid, but every time he did that his parents and godparents seemed surprised that he was there at all. He knew that somewhere in their subconscious they still remembered he was there; they still served him food when they ate, but they seemed to do it automatically and not notice it. It was sad that the happiest thing for the child was seeing a plate of food in front of his seat at the table.

He was even sadder remembering a time when Henry had asked for permission to bring some friend home because he had no one to play with, Lilly had almost said yes but Harry had impulsively called on them saying he could play with Henry, both his mother and brother were startled, like all the other times, and an embarrassed Lilly told them to play together. Harry would never do that again in his life, Henry had played with him for not even five minutes when he said out loud he was bored of playing alone and left the room to ask his mother again, not seeing the hurt in his brother's eyes.

Harry was really envious of Henry, he always got all the attention, he always got all the gifts, the hugs, the kisses, bedtime stories, he got to play quidditch with their father and the other Marauders, and worse of all, the love, yes, he envied Henry, he might say even loathe him. It would be easier if he was spoiled, but Henry was anything but spoiled, Lilly had made sure of that, Henry was punished if he did wrong, he was made to do chores helping their mother in the house, they made him study for school instead of letting him laze about, and given what he wanted only if he deserved it, no, Henrich Jeremiah Potter was not spoiled.

Harry had tried a lot of things to get his parents attention, he scribbled on the walls, broke things and lazed around but it didn't work at all, their parents always thought it was Henry and if he called on them to say it was him it just led to more awkward moments and a 'don't do it again' and it was back to being ignored. He tried then the opposite, being well behaved all the time, doing chores without being asked to, get better grades than Henry and don't asking for anything, material at least, that didn't work either, again it was Henry who got the credit for that, and when he said he hadn't done any of that it just got curious looks on their parents faces and them asking 'then who did it?' Harry had given up on calling on them long ago by then.

He was thinking on how to get his parents attention, and his mind was turning to darker thoughts of getting the entire world to look at him when he was interrupted by the arrival of a huge avian which gave him a package that he took inside to open it without the monstrous creature frightening him.

He set the package on the table and saw how in black letters it stated 'Happy Birthday Harry'. He felt really happy, someone had really sent him a gift, finally someone remembered him, someone noticed! He tore the wrapping of the package and saw that it was a shrunken trunk and a letter. Now he had never received a proper education on how wizards act, after all no one noticed him, but he still knew it was impolite to open a gift without reading what the sender had to say to him, Lilly had told Henry so, many times during Christmas and their birthdays. So he opened the letter and read, something he had to teach himself to do long ago.

**(AN: The letter is really long, if you want to skip it then you can, but don't ask where he got some things from later on)**

.-._.-._.

_To Harold Jacobus Potter._

_I hope this letter finds you well, though I doubt it. This package should arrive to you by your eighth birthday if not then happy birthday in advance or delayed; whatever it is._

_But seriously, I hope this gets to you by your eighth birthday while your parents and brother are away at the zoo, or else it will be really hard for them to ignore Horus, that's the really big ass bird out there. Curious as to how I know that they are, were or will be away that day? Well, that's easy; I am your 23 counterpart from the future. Shocked? Don't be, you know that magic is real so pretty much anything is possible, even traveling 15 years into the past, although some people say it's impossible or really dangerous, well I don't care, you deserve a gift so danger and impossibility can go to hell!_

_There are several reasons for me to send this package, the first being that I thought you/I deserved a birthday gift at that particular date, seeing how your family left you behind to go to the zoo, yeah, it sounds sad that I had to send a gift to myself, but once you see what's inside you will forget about that, and I hope this makes up for many sad birthdays past._

_Another reason is that I wanted to change things here. You see, I never received this package or anything similar, so basically by sending this I'm changing the past and thus destroying my present, so if you are reading this then me and pretty much everyone else are dead, don't worry , I planned it that way. Why? Well there are many reasons that it would take just too long for me to explain in this letter, but in the trunk there are my journals so if you read them you will know what happened to me and how this package came to be. But I want to make clear that your future is on your hands, you don't need to follow my steps, I actually hope you don't, not that it's bad to being me, but I don't want you to become like me just because you are following my example, be your own man, become whoever you want, if you want to become me then fine, but don't let it be because you feel you have to, because you don't._

_And the third reason is that I wanted you to be prepared, everyone will ignore you because of a curse you have, so you will need to prepare yourself since no one else will help you, yep that's right little fellow this whole suffering is due to a curse, BUT don't be so quick to forgive anyone for ignoring you just because there is a curse, for the curse makes it so that anyone not wishing us the best won't notice us, so the fact than James and Lily don't notice you means that they don't care enough for you, or else they would be immune to the curse's effects, same goes for Henry, Sirius and Remus. When I discovered this I just became angrier at them, but I won't bother you with any of my angst. The curse will stay until something specific happens, something that can happen during your first year at school, but it's in your hands that it happens at all; you can read about it in my journals._

_Now, the package,__ you might have noticed it's a shrunk trunk, however it's not a common trunk, not at all, this is really special, I made it myself. It's made of Guaiacum 'the wood of life' which is the hardest wood in existence and when imbued with magic it can self heal,__ the edges are made of white gold with protection runes engraved in it, its upholstering is of Erumpent hide, which is really hard, so it's very resistant. It has 7 compartments, all of which are lined with Moke skin, so no one but you can access them, and__ have ever-expanding charms in them. The whole thing is charmed to be featherweight and you can enlarge and shrink it with simple commands and attach it to your belt when shrunk._

_In the first compartment you will find the biggest library known to man; muggle, wizard or otherwise; these last three years I raided a lot of libraries all over the world, most of them belonging to really old magical families. I also raided a lot of muggle libraries recognized for holding rare and old books, so you will have knowledge from both the elfin libraries, which are the largest there are, or were before I emptied them, and held knowledge lost to all but them, and now you have access to that knowledge, there are also books of my own authoring that you will find quite useful. If you ever find a book that is not in there, improbable but possible, the library will automatically expand to make room for it. Most wizards think it's impossible to create an infinite space inside a finite container, but as I said, impossibility can go to hell!_

_The second compartment is a walk in wardrobe, right now it's filled with clothes that are way too big for you, they actually are my size, but I charmed them to be self-fitting so you won't have to worry about buying clothes ever again, you will always have clothes that fit you just fine, there are muggle clothes and wizard robes in there, as well as some formal robes, in case you have to assist some of those really boring parties. I also got five special sets of Hogwarts' uniform for you, I commissioned them to the goblins, the robes, trousers, gauntlets and shoes are all made of a mixture of Basilisk scales and Ukrainian Ironbelly hide, together they become the ultimate defense, nothing short of an AK(you will learn what that is later) can pass them. You see, both Basilisks and Dragons are magical resistant creatures (and the Ironbelly even more so), the Basilisk because it repels magic and the Dragon because they absorb it, when together they make it so that the Dragon part of the clothes absorbs half of the spells's magic while the Basilisk part dissolves the other half and it slowly dissolves the rest which was stored in the Dragon hide, the shirts of these sets are made of Acromantula silk, nothing special about it other than being as strong as metal so you are protected against physical attacks as well. There is also an armor set for quidditch, that is a piece of work and even though most fanatics would be outraged by it the suit doesn't break any of the rules of the game. Also, just like the library compartment this one will make room if you get more clothes._

_The third compartment is your very own potions lab, it has a large area for you to brew your potions and is already set with all you could need, there are many apothecary cabinets already filled with ingredients for whenever you want to start practicing. However this has nothing really mind blowing other than the fact that the steam of any potion you brew will automatically be banished, you can and will run out of ingredients, and you will have to restock the cabinets yourself. There is another trunk inside this compartment, it's not as special as the main one, in there you will find several potions you would do good to take since they will help you in the long run, they are nothing really special, just strengthening potions, nutrient concoctions, memory-enhancing and wit-sharpening beverages, you don't have to but it's advisable that you take them at least one of each daily until you run out of them, I packed enough for a year._

_The fourth compartment is a small room for when you desire some privacy, there is a small but really comfy bed, a full body mirror, and five doors that get you inside the other walk-in compartments. There is also a bedside table where you will find my journals, my own wand which you can use to do magic without being tracked and a pair of glasses that adjust automatically to your eyes so that you don't need to get new ones and help you read faster, complemented with the Memory Enhancement beverages I sent you makes a good combo._

_The fifth compartment is a simple bathroom; it banishes all wastes and conjures tepid water from the shower and room temperature water from the sink._

_The sixth is a storeroom that, like the library and wardrobe compartments, will make room for anything you store there. In here you will find a set of artifacts I have either found or stolen (If you haven't figure it out, I'm a bad guy, though you don't have to be), they are really valuable and/or useful. There is an invisibility cloak that is part of a known legend, actually James owns it originally but I stole it when…it doesn't matter when, then there is a really powerful wand that is also part of that same legend, be careful when using it though, no one must know you have any of the things stored here or you might face real trouble, there was a third item that was part of the legend, but I was unable to retrieve it, to be honest I don't know if these two items will be in there since they are legendary and it could be that there can only be one of each, I'm uncertain about it. Then there is Gryffindor's sword, a special map I designed that shows your surroundings within a 2 miles radius and everyone in that area, I actually based this one on a map James and his friends made during their stay at Hogwarts, yours is better though, since it works wherever you are instead of just the school and shows a pair of rooms the Marauders never found, I included a pensive I stole from Dumbledore, there is a small box with several vials with some of my memories I thought you could use and the instructions to use it. I included a broom, the fastest of this year, the Thunder Bolide X4, its top speed is 187 mph so be careful with it. I also added the blueprints of my house and the security system design for you to use if you ever want to. Those are the more noteworthy stuff I included, but I also sent a lot of other stuff that could come in handy, these artifacts I found while traveling, and here is an advice for you, if the opportunity ever arises to travel and know the world, then take it and explore this vast playground, it would be a shame to never see what is out there, in order to make this easier for you I also included another trunk in this compartment filled with what little gold was left from my savings after I gathered all this for you. I wanted to add another two specific items but was unable to so you will have to get them yourself._

_And finally the seventh compartment is the one you will use the most since you will pack there what you need to have at hand, right now it's filled with ink pots, a self-sharpening and spell-checking quill, some fountain pens, several yards of parchment and sheets of paper. There are also several pills in there, they are called language lozenges and when you eat them you learn a new language, I sent a full set of non-magical languages and a couple of magical ones, elfish, parcel, and an old language long forgotten, these last three were hard since I had to made them myself, you will need the old language a lot, trust me._

_That's the content of the package, but it's not all I sent you, I also included six guardians that can take care of you, Horus, Arlecchino, Pulcinella, Brighella, Mezzetino and Pedrolino, those six are shades, beings created by me (I'm awesome), you can read about how from one of my books, they make for perfect guards since they are really hard to kill, what could kill a normal human would only make shades disappear for a while before reforming stronger than before, the only way to kill a shade is by piercing it through the heart, however killing these six will be even harder, Horus because he is the most powerful shade to ever be created so far and the other five because they have to be killed all at the same time or they won't die at all, however, beware of shades, for they are cold blooded warriors and really cruel, they would betray you if they could, Horus would at least, the other five are really loyal, so in order to ensure they obey you have to ensue orders by using their true by magic given names, you will learn more about it later, for now remember that if one of them get's hard to deal with their true names are Blödhgala(p. blood-ka-a-la) for Horus and Könungrsevarinya(p. con-ung-s-se-va-rin-ja) for the other five, they are after all one shade in five bodies so they share their true name. However they won't obey if the order is harmful for you, I made sure of that._

_I think this is all I had to say, I sent this in the hopes that things will go different and better for you, I gave you the tools, it's now in your hands to decide which path you will choose. Good luck._

_The only one who ever cared._

.-._.-._.

**(AN: End of the letter, if you skipped it you lost the right to ask about certain things, well you can still ask, though I don't guarantee and answer)**

Harry finished the letter with wide eyes, was it possible? He didn't question the possibility of sending things to the past, he knew magic was real but he didn't know what was possible or impossible with it so he couldn't really question about the origins of the package, besides, who else but himself would send a gift to him? No, what he was questioning was the part about him being cursed, though it made sense, and it was even more painful for it, if it was true then it meant that his parents, no, James and Lily, didn't care, they would be immune to the curse otherwise, he didn't want to think that way, but why would his future self lie to him about that? Or anything for that matter?

He re-read the letter, it hinted that he would need to train; he had to be prepared for something that would happen in the future, so he would train. He could always train there at Godric's Hollow, no one would notice, no one ever did, and with his future self's wand he was all set for it, but the problem was Horus and the other shades, Horus couldn't go unnoticed in his bird form, and if he was this prominent in this form then maybe he couldn't be inconspicuous even in his human form, and he was a dark creature, the last part of the letter said as much, the wards around the house would detect him and the others if they stayed, and they had to stay with him, they would take care of him, and they could even teach him things, things he couldn't learn if he stayed. The letter said he should take the opportunity to know the world, well, why wait?

He quickly enlarged the trunk and opened the seventh compartment, and just as the letter said there was parchment and other stuff there, he cut a few inches of parchment and took the quill before dipping it in an ink pot and writing a note, in case his DNA donors ever noticed, he doubted it, he put the date in the note, just for them to know just how much it took for them to notice he was gone, maybe they would repent then, he didn't care if he was cruel to them, they were supposed to be his parents and care for him, yet the curse having an effect on them indicated otherwise. He thought about leaving the note right there in the kitchen, but he decided to better put it in his room, he climbed the stairs and put it on the bed before closing the door as he left. He climbed down the stairs and closed the trunk again before shrinking it and attaching it to his belt.

"Horus?"—little Harry asked towards the big bird, which looked at him inquisitively before converting into a cloud of black smoke and reforming into the human shape of the redhead—"are the others around?"

"So the master told you about us, hmm, he surely told you our…names…well, I guess there is no helping it now"—he indicated the others to get out from wherever they were at, from some nearby trees and roofs five falcons descended and transformed into men before landing—"So? We were ordered to obey you as if you were our master, so what is it you wish to do now? Do you want us to play with you? Tell you a bed story?"—asked the man with disdain and Harry remembered what the letter said about shades being cruel. The other five glared at Horus but said nothing, unless the child became upset it was no use.

"Take me to Gringotts and then we will leave"—Harry said firmly he wouldn't let the redhead talk him down—"we will be traveling and you will teach me stuff"

"Teach you…stuff, right, so what is it you want to learn exactly?"—asked Horus still upset but intrigued now.

"We can talk about that later, for now Gringotts"—Horus scowled but complied anyway, he took the child's shoulder and then all of them disappeared.

.-._.-._.

**So, what do you all think? I hope you liked this as much as I liked writing it. For those who are waiting for me to update my other stories I will do it soon, it's just that I'm kind of excited about this story so that's why I updated it so fast, you know how it is.**

**I'm already writing the next chapter, I got inspired and think I will pull an all nighter to finish it; seriously I just go****t the idea for the next while writing the end of this one. Anyway R&R.**


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 2: Worse than cold water.

The Potter had returned home late at night, tired after the long day they had had, their son's birthday consisted of a small party in the morning and visiting the leaky cauldron where they met with Henry's friends before leaving for the zoo, where they spent most of the day, they had eaten there before leaving for an amusement park, it wasn't planned but Henry wished to show his friends what an amusement park was so they ended up going, they had then had dinner at a restaurant before finally heading back. Once they arrived they showered and quickly fell on their beds totally exhausted.

The following morning they all slept in and had breakfast late, Lily had already served four plates when Sirius arrived, Lily was about to get up and serve him a plate as well when Sirius thanked her for foreseeing his visit and serving a fourth plate, Lily was puzzled by it, but she attributed her miscount to being tired from the day before. Sirius had stayed the whole day to play with Henry, since he had not been able to be with them the day before due to work, she had almost served an extra plate both during lunch and dinner time, both times Sirius had pointed out that she had already served him a plate, she was puzzled by all this but didn't give it any importance, maybe she was just tired. Sirius left at the end of the day and they went to bed, Lily feeling that something was missing but not being able to put her finger on it.

The next day at breakfast, after they all finished she was picking up the empty plates when she noticed there was an untouched one, she sighed in frustration, she had served and extra without noticing, this was so unlike her. She thought on why would she serve an extra plate, she wasn't expecting anyone and she had almost served an extra during the three meals the day before, if not for Sirius pointing it out to her she just might had. She put the food in the fridge and forgot about the matter, but it came back to poke her at lunch when again she found the full extra plate sitting on the table, she was now really upset, she was wasting food pointlessly, she again wondered why was this happening. It wasn't until dinner that it clicked that someone was supposed to eat that extra plate, she made memory; she remembered always serving four plates when no one was visiting, and the four plates were always empty at the end of the meal, so obviously someone ate it every day, but whom? And why hadn't she noticed this before? She went to bed thinking of it.

Again the next morning she served four plates automatically, and didn't notice until they were all seated at the table, she spent breakfast staring at the spot where she had placed the extra plate, the same spot where she had placed it all the previous occasions.

"James?"—asked Lily to her husband as he was finishing his morning meal.

"Yes dear?"—answered a drowsy James.

"Who seat in that seat every day?"

"Hmm?"—asked a curious James as he turned and looked at the spot, he furrowed his brows in concentration—"I don't think anyone does"—he finally answered.

"No, someone does, I remember I always serve a plate and place it in that spot, I just hadn't noticed before, and it's always empty at the end of the meal, so someone has to eat it, but I just can't put my finger on it"

"Really? I hadn't noticed"—James was now very curious—"you think maybe a creature was living here without us noticing and it left? Maybe that's why you hadn't noticed until now?"

"I don't think that's it, the wards would have alerted us, don't you think?"

"That's true, but I don't really know, sorry love"

"It's just…I feel like I should know who is supposed to eat that"

"Who could it be?"

"Who could be who?"—asked Henry finally paying attention to his parents' conversation.

"Henry, do you know who sat there?"—Lily pointed to the spot; Henry looked at it and tried to remember but came up empty.

She let it rest for now and James flooed to the Ministry for work while Henry visited his friend Neville, but it happened again at lunch and this time she couldn't let it rest, she had to find out who was supposed to be the fourth, she had tried to remember but it was really hard for her, she checked herself for memory charms, in case someone had obliviated her, but came up with nothing, so it wasn't that she had been made to forget, she had forgotten herself, but why and who had she forgotten? She decided that maybe reviewing some of her memories from before this started could help, but she would need a pensive for that and she only knew of one person who had one, so she headed to the fireplace and flooed Albus Dumbledore.

"Albus, are you there?"—asked Lily from the chimney, the old man sitting by the desk looked at he spot and smiled.

"Hi Lily, nice to see you, what can I do for you?"—he asked the redhead.

"Can I come through?"

"Sure, come in"—Lily did just that and after brushing off the soot she sat down in front of the headmaster—"now, not that I don't appreciate the visit, but at this hour it must be something important"

"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything, Albus, it's just that I need to use your pensive to review a few memories"—Dumbledore was puzzled by this but didn't show it.

"And why do you need to do that?"

"It's just that…lately I have noticed that I always serve a fourth plate at meals, I do it automatically and don't notice until either we have finished eating or we are all seated at the table, it has been going on for three days now and it's really bugging me, I finally remembered that someone was supposed to eat that extra plate, but I can't put my finger on whom, I need to review the memories of a few meals before this started, maybe I will find out that way"

"Hmm, are you sure of that? Maybe it's just your imagination"

"I don't think so, and in either case reviewing the memories will let me know"

"Alright, I guess there is no problem then, follow me please"—the old man took Lily to where a cabinet was and opened it, revealing the pensive and indicated Lily to proceed. The redhead put her wand against her temple and retrieved the memories of a few meals before Henry's birthday, she put them inside the stone cauldron and lowered her face, Dumbledore did as well and both were sucked into the memories.

There they saw an scene from the day just before Henry's birthday, they were starting to eat when a second Henry joined them at the table and ate quietly, and left just as quietly, without anyone turning around to look at him, Lily was now even more puzzled, where had come this replica of his son come from? Dumbledore was startled by the revelation, he didn't know Henry had a twin, he quickly scanned his mind and found that indeed Henry had a twin, and he had met him, but by what he remembered the child wasn't important, so he decided it didn't matter if he had forgotten, Lily on the other hand, after racking her brain for an answer realized that she had forgotten about her other son, Harry, she covered her mouth with her hand now baffled that she had done such a thing to her son, tears started to form. Another memory played of a dinner a few days before, the same boy came into the room and took a seat at the table, eating quietly and leaving just as quietly, and just like in the previous memory, no one had noticed. Lily stared at the memory of Harry as he left the room and saw him look back at them with sorrow before disappearing behind the door, no one of them looked at him, she was a wreck and quickly left the pensive, Dumbledore following here.

She sobbed a few times as Dumbledore retrieved her memories from his pensive and put them in a vial before giving it to her, he gently pushed her towards his desk and sat her down on the chair in front of it, while he sat on his chair behind the desk.

"I don't know what to say to you Lily, I cannot imagine what's going on inside of you, maybe you should go back home and call James, you need to be with your family now"—suggested the old man.

"I…Albus…Harry, what have I done? My son Albus, I forgot about my son and it took me this long to remember him! What…what kind of mother does that? I'm such a horrible mother"—she cried.

"Maybe it's better you go Lily, it's important to be with family at times like this"

"I should go then…I will call James…thank you for letting me use you pensive Albus"—she sullenly walked to the fireplace and after taking a bit of the green powder shen called for Potter manor and was gone from the office, Albus looked at where she had disappeared and sighed, he really was relieved that she was gone, it was hard to deal with crying women, even more if you don't know what they are going through and he really couldn't hope to understand her pain, she needed to be with her husband.

.-._.-._.

Lily fell on her butt as she arrived home, she was really a mess so she couldn't land properly, she had told Albus she would call James, but she would rather be alone, she wandered to the second floor of the house and went directly to Harry's room, afraid of what she might find there, she had a flash of her son's sorrowful face as he left the table and wondered if he had maybe committed suicide, but she didn't want to think that, she hesitantly opened the door and saw that the room was clean, just a small amount of dust, indicating no one had been there for a short while, she looked around the room with sadness, her son had left, he had given up on them and just like they abandoned him he did the same, her tears just intensified. She walked to the bed and laid down on it, trying to have some sort of contact with her lost child, she then felt something under her, she moved and saw it was a piece of parchment, a note, the last memento she had of her son, she took it and read, only to cry even louder, she held the note close to her chest while she cried and soon fell asleep on the small bed.

She was awakened later by the sound of someone arriving by the floo, it surely was James, and sure think she heard him calling her not soon after.

"Love, I'm home"—he shouted, Lily decided to remain silent, she was too sad to speak—"Lily?"—he called again, Lily sighed and stood up before walking downstairs and meeting her husband, James turned around and the smile he always had for her banished once he saw her bloodshot eyes from crying too much—"Lily, what's wrong?"—Lily just shook her head and handed him the note, James took it and read.

_I would tell that I will miss you, but that would be a outrageous lie, I don't expect you to ever find this note, but who knows, maybe after a week you notice I'm no longer here, I'm leaving this place, I know you won't care either way, surely the only reason you will notice my absence is the account statement that says my trust vault has been emptied, so yeah, I won't miss you, I hope you all go to hell._

_Harry_

_July 31th, 1988._

"Harry?"—asked James to his wife, she stood there with new tears flowing down her cheeks—"Harry"—he remembered that Halloween, his wife was holding a wailing Henry and he was holding an unconscious Harry, then everything came back, memories of a child standing by the side, no one paying attention to him, his green and sorrowful eyes staring at them while they laughed—"HARRY!"—he ran upstairs, Lily just stood there crying, he ran towards the room his wife had just left and stormed in, just to find it empty, the only sign that anyone had been there was the bed where Lily had laid moments ago, he opened the wardrobe, the clothes were still there, though he noticed they were really old, when was the last time they bought clothes for Harry? He inspected the room, everything was there, meaning his son had left without taking anything, he looked around, no pictures adorned the walls or the bedside table, unlike Henry's room which had photos of happy moments they had as a family, and the thought struck him hard, they had been a family, and as a family they had abandoned Harry, it was no wonder he had left, he tried to remember his sons' birthday and recalled that Henry had enjoyed it, while Harry had been left behind, he fell to his knees and screamed in agony and anger at himself.

Henry arrived not long after his father and saw his mother standing by the doorframe crying, he was about to ask what was going on when he heard his father roar. That day the potters had a really sullen dinner. Lily and James chastising themselves about being horrible parents, Henry mourning the loss of the brother he never took the time to know.

.-._.-._.

**So what do you think? A lot of angst at the end, I know. Please R&R.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Damn! You people really want me to bash Dumbledore big time, more than three quarters of my readers guessed that Dumbledore was the one who cursed Harry, I'm sorry to say this but he didn't, he dismissed Harry the moment he saw him after Voldemort's attack due to the curse already being in place, the curse is actually the horrocrux's way to protect itself. But don't worry, I will make sure I bash Dumbledore as much as I can anyway.**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 3: Hide and seek

**August the 1th, 1988.**

**Northwest of Belgium.**

Harry woke up the day after he left inside the room in his new trunk; a clock that wasn't mentioned in the letter indicated it was 10:24 in the morning, though with it not being special it was no wonder why his future self had forgotten about it; he stood up and entered the bathroom to take a shower to wash off his grogginess, he got out and accessed the wardrobe and took out a pair of jeans and a simple dark blue t-shirt before getting out of the trunk and meting his six guards waiting for him, he had asked them last night where they would sleep and discovered that shades didn't need to sleep, another reason why they were such great guardians.

"So, what next?"—asked grudgingly Horus, he was really sore that he had to obey a kid.

"First, I don't think they will come looking for me, even if they find out I'm gone, but we need to be careful, so can you make it so that it's impossible to find me?"—asked the child to the six shades, Horus answered first.

"It can be done, but you need to get a provisional name since I will make it so that no one can find 'Harold Jacobus Potter' that would affect us as well as others, a provisional name would go a long way to prevent that, no one would look for your other identity, though both will still belong to you"

"You mean like a secret identity? Ok, how about Raven, my mo…Lily always said Henry's hair looked like a raven's nest, and since we are twins then so does mine?"

"Hmm, not good enough, if someone asks for a last name, and it would be too obvious in case you face your family again, Corvino sounds more like a name, so Corvino something"

"Or something Corvino, it sounds like a good last names as well"—interrupted Pedrolino—"he is important to our master somehow, and we must treat him almost as royalty, so why not Royal Raven? Rioga is a common name in Asia and it means royal in Irish"

"It would raise many brows if anyone ever asked, his name would be too…exotic; a mix of three cultures that his appearance gives away he has never had any contact with"—commented Horus.

"It doesn't matter; it's not as if anyone will ask"—said Harry.

"We can't risk it"—answered the only unmasked shade.

"He will need a middle name too; it's uncommon all around Europe not to have a middle name"—said silkily Arlecchino, he looked at Harry, searching for something to get an idea and then he saw the scar—"storm, tom, Crovino is Italian, there is an Italian name, Tommas, it means twin, it suits him and is not as notorious, would Tommas Corvino do? But we would need to get rid of Rioga, we should choose another Italian name instead"

"That's good enough"—answered Horus—"now for another name, having a European name without having a middle name would be suspicious"

"Uhmm"—interrupted Harry—"my grandfather was named Charlus, and he actually was nice to me until he died, so I would like to be named like him"

"Well, there is Carlo, it suits him as well"—commented Arlecchino—"it means free man, to Carlo Tommas Corvino?"

"I don't see the problem, it's inconspicuous enough"—commented Horus—"alright then, you have to do it yourself, we cannot give you a new name, you have to take it yourself, the incantation would be atra vanyali eka taka du nama Carlo Tommas Corvino"

"Uhm, what?"—asked Harry, Horus sighed and repeated the chant slowly.

"You have to get it right, if you mistake a word who knows what could happen"

"Uhm, alright, a…atra vani….vanyali…"

"STOP!"—shouted Horus—"you have to say it right and say it with strength, you cannot stutter or you could harm yourself or others, you have to be firm and say it with confidence"

"Can you say the spell again then?...please?"—asked the child, Horus felt a headache coming but complied nevertheless—"_atra vanyali..._"—he looked at Horus, who signaled him to continue—"_…eka taka…du nama Carlo Tommas Corvino_"—he waited for something to happen, but he was disappointed, he looked at the shades expectantly.

"What? You thought there would be a spectacle of lights or something of the sorts? Not all magic is flashy, nevertheless we must test it _faluga Carlo_"—as he said this Harry started to float before Horus stopped his magic and the child landed—"there, it worked, you are now both Harry and Carlo, now let's hide Harry, _atra Harold Jacobus Potter waíse vardo fra el__d sja un sköliro fra eld ven_"—as he finished a white mist rose from the ground and surrounded Harry before disappearing as if it was never there—"there, now no one will know where you are if they are looking for Harry Potter, however you can still be seen as Carlo Corvino, now that that's taken care of what's next"

"We should find food for the child"—suggested Brighella—"I could go hunting"

"It would take too much time, there should be a city nearby, we are in Belgium if I'm not mistaken and Brugge shouldn't be far away"—said Mezzetino, knowing full well that Brighella just wanted an excuse to kill something.

"True, it would take less time to reach Brugge than catch something"—said Horus—"I don't know how far we are and I have never been at Brugge, any of you have?"—the Zanni shook their heads—"then we can't apparate there, we will fly, I will take the child"

With that taken care of Harry, or rather Carlo, shrunk the trunk and attached it to his belt, Horus put a hand on his shoulder and then everyone disappeared in specks of black smoke which took off and in the sky took the form of the same Falcons from last night and the big Argentavis, Carlo sitting on the latter's back. Harry couldn't contain himself and shouted in glee as he felt the air caressing his skin.

.-._.-._.

**August the 4th, 1988.**

**Scotland.**

"We have to find him Albus, he is our son!"—said a desperate Lily the day after they found out their son was gone, she had been too depressed the previous day to even think of looking for him, James and her had had scarce sleep but both woke up with a new determination to find Harry, James had flooed to his boss at the DMLE to ask for a leave in order to focus entirely on this.

"I will see what I can find out Lily, however you two must understand that the only way we could find him is by tracking charms, and mine have not worked so something is preventing us from locating him, maybe he did accidental magic that is blocking our efforts and he doesn't realize, but there is the possibility that here is someone with him who did it, the only thing left I can think of is the tracing the ministry uses to control underage magic, but that is not placed until children make it to Hogwarts, it's very rare for the ministry to put the trace on a minor before that, not impossible but I doubt they placed it on him. It could be too that Harry got out of the country in which case tracking charms should point to his general position, so far we have got not even that, I will however ask my acquaintances at the ICW to ask their governments for any information they can get, again, I ask you that it's possible we find nothing"

"Could you at least ask them to put in a notice in their countries to notify us if anyone finds him?"—asked James holding his wife—"we will do the same around here"

"I would advise against that, we should tread with caution here in England, there are many Death Eaters still out there that could find him and use him as leverage against you or they could try to get to Henry through him, we can't allow that"

"I just want the opportunity to hold my son again"—whispered Lily, just loud enough for both of them to hear her.

"I promise you both I will do everything in my power to retrieve Harry for you"—said the old man—"James, I think Lily should rest, she is emotionally exhausted, she can't exert herself too much or thing could only get worse"

"Yes, thank you Albus, and please contact us if you know anything"—and with that both Potters left Dumbledore's office, the old wizard contemplated his options, searching for Harry would move too many resources unnecessarily, and asking his ICW acquaintances for help would require to call on some favors, favors he could need in the future when Voldemort arises again, all of this for a child of no importance would be a waste, yet again if he was able to retrieve him then he would have a few extra point with Henry in order to manipulate him better. Well, Tom wouldn't arise for a while, at least until Henry was able to go to Hogwarts, and that was three years away so he could afford to move the ministry resources for this search, as for the ICW helping, maybe he could let someone hear about this, if that someone was a Death Eater then they would surely mobilize to find him before the Potters in order to get to Henry, retrieving Harry from a mere Death Eater wouldn't be too hard, if the child died in the process it would be a shame but not a big loss, he would have tried to recuperate him so he wouldn't lose points with Henry, that was the worst case scenario he could think of, at best he would either find the boy before the Death Eaters, the next best thing would be to retrieve him from their hands if they managed to find him first, in both cases he wins and in no scenario does he lose, yes, that's what he would do, now, which Death Eater held enough power within the ICW? He could think of that later, for now he better started by mobilizing the DMLE. What irked him the most was that someone was able to hide from him, that wouldn't do, when he found the child he would need to investigate how he managed to block his efforts to find him.

.-._.-._.

**August the 1th, 1988.**

**Brugge, Belgium.**

Harry sighed as he finished his breakfast/lunch; they had arrived to Brugge near midday so they had to buy a full meal instead of something lighter. After than they went to a more secluded are to discuss what to do next.

"Alright, so you already ate, you cannot be found by anyone, so what now? You have yet to tell us what's your plan from now on, we can't work like that"—said an irritated Horus.

"Well, the letter said you were to be my guards, but it never mentioned what any of you were capable of, so I want to hear it"

"What does that have to do with anything?"—asked the irritable shade.

"Just do it Horus"—said Arlecchino—"As the letter might have said we are shades, I don't know if it explained what shades are so I will tell you everything I know we are all capable of, first of all, we cannot die by normal means, in order to kill a shade you have to stab it through the heart or it won't die, if we are struck by what would be lethal for someone else we just temporarily disappear and when we appear again we are stronger than before, we are all able to use magic, and though we tend to only use dark magic we are proficient in all of it, we are also very skilled fighters so we are more dangerous to wizards since they have long ago forgotten how to really fight, now that's only the general stuff, on a more particular note I and the rest of the zanni are all one shade, when we were created the amalgam that was to be the soul of a single shade was forcibly divided in five and introduced into five bodies, mine is that of a half-giant while the rest of the zanni are bodies of half-elves, offspring of a human and an elf from one of the different castes, we are all proficient with handling weapons, I normally use a broad sword, Pulcinella is more proficient with thrown weapons and can use knives or cards to attack from a distance, Mezzetino uses a pair of whips, Pedrolino uses daggers and Brighella uses his fists, we are harder to kill than a normal shade, the letter probably told you that, and Horus here was created with the body of a full elf from the High Elves caste, by being created with the body of a full magical creature he became the most powerful shade in existence, magically speaking of course, he usually uses a spear to fight"

"So you all know how to handle weapons, great, but where are they?"

"We don't have weapons, we conjure them when we need them"—said Brighella as his hand was covered by a metal gauntlet—"it's easier this way"

"So what did this had to do with anything?"—asked Horus again.

"You all will teach me to use weapons as well as you do, and you will teach me magic as well"—said Harry with a happy tone.

"What?"—shouted Horus.

"I suppose we can teach you, it will do him good to learn this, most wizards nowadays, if not all of them, don't know how to handle a weapon for their life, and it will make it easier for us to protect him if we know he can protect himself, that way we only intervene if he is in real trouble"—commented Arlecchino.

"Besides, the wand that was in the trunk is inside a knife so I need to use it both as a weapon and as a foci"—said Harry innocently, the shades looked at him puzzled, getting the unasked request Harry took out eh knife he was talking about, it was a dirk dagger, 14 inches long, the handle was black and the blade silver (1).

"That's…how did you get the master's wand?"—asked Pedrolino both outraged and curious.

"Well, it was inside the trunk on the bedside table of my room, and the letter said it was for me"—said Harry, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Why would he send his own wand to a child? Unless…well, we are in the past so it could actually be that you are our master at a younger age? Is that right? Are you our master?"—asked Mezzetino.

"Well, the letter besides my bed said to keep it a secret as long as I could; I guess the cat is out of the bag"

"I don't understand"—said Horus—"he practically destroyed the timeline by sending us here, we were not created until 17 years in the future, the only reason I can think of is that he wanted to be more powerful and the only way he thought of was to make himself powerful sooner, that way the war wouldn't interfere with his efforts, but by doing this he also risks that things won't happen as they did, unless he wants things to be different, but why?"

"It doesn't really matter, does it? We are here and we can't go back, and if we could we would have nowhere to go back to, we are stuck here and we must finish our mission"—said Arlecchino before turning to Harry again—"that wand is unique, as far as I know The Master, that is yourself, commissioned a sword from the goblins, but it was not a common sword, the handle was six feet long and the blade measured up to 3 feet, handling it would be really hard, and then he asked for his own wand to be placed right where handle meet the blade, that sword later became that dagger you are holding, the blade can extend to become a normal sword or the handle to become a spear, or it can be used as a dirk as it's now, I don't know where your future self learned to use either weapon, I just know he did, but I suspect he predicted you would ask to learn to use these weapons, maybe he had planned all this long before we met him"

"The note that was besides it said as much, but it said I would have to find out how to transform it on my own"—said Harry.

"So then what? We teach him to use the weapon?"—asked Horus

"We all will teach him something, and magic too, if we were sent here with the goal to make the master stronger then we will do so, besides we must look out for the wellbeing of the young master, not teaching him hardly fits the description of the order"—answered Arlecchino.

"So it's young master now?"—asked an irritated Horus—"alright, then let's go, we should find somewhere to train him"

"We will also travel a lot"—said Harry—"I want to know the world while we are at it"

"Fine, but move it, we don't have all day"

.-._.-._.

**(1)Search with google 'brass mounted dirk' then go to images and the first one should be a black dirk with a chromed blade.**

**The incantations:**

**atra vanyali eka taka du nama Carlo Tommas Corvino: May magic give me the name Carlo Tommas Corvino.**

**atra Harold Jacobus Potter waíse vardo fra eld sja un sköliro fra eld ven: May Harold Jacobus Potter be protected from lookers and shielded from sightseers (Lookers in this case referring to those looking for him while sightseers refers to anyone looking at him passing by, meaning that if is someone actively searching for Harry they won't find him and if they happen to be close to him they wouldn't recognize him)**

**About the Zanni, I probably should have explained this before in case any Narutard (not that it's bad) out there thought I was taking the term from Naruto's Sannin, if someone thought this was the case then get out more often or shot yourselves, Zanni is the term given to the servant characters in "Commedia Dell' Arte" often used for comic relief and more often than not achieving that the Innamorati get together, the names of the Zanni in this story are only five of many character belonging to this group.**

**AGAIN I HAVE TO ASK FORGIVENESS FROM THOSE WHO ARE READING MY OTHER STORIES, I'M KIND OF FOCUSED ON THIS STORY, SEEING HO IT'S MY MOST RECENT WORK, BUT I PROMISE I WILL GO BACK TO MY OTHER STORIES AS SOON AS THIS 'NEW-STORY-FEVER' GOES DOWN.**


	5. Chapter 5

Ch. 4: Life goes on, and so does time.

**September the 15th 1988**

**Scotland.**

Albus Dumbledore was a troubled man, not because there was any real trouble, at least he didn't think so, no, his worries were because of a child named Harry James Potter. The child had been missing for more than a month now, his parents were distraught since his parting but what affected his plans the most was that Henry was felling really down since then, if things continued like this then Henry wouldn't be in optimal conditions for him to use the child. With this in mind he had increased efforts to find him, and even the Death Eaters were looking for the kid now, yet, despite all that no one could find him, no one was able to even point in his general location, as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth.

He knew the child wasn't dead, he had checked the list of expected students for 1991; the child would have entered Hogwarts that year; and his name still figured there, he had even tried sending the Hogwarts letter sooner, something he as headmaster was able to do, but the owl had returned not even two seconds after being sent taking that searching method away. He never noticed the addition of one Carlo Corvino to the list, not that he should, his only interest at the moment was to find Harry to get Henry to cheer up.

What irked him the most about this entire situation was that he, Albus Percibal Wulfric Briar Dumbledore, the greatest wizard alive, wasn't able to locate a single child! How was that even possible? He was getting anxious to find the child, if only just to have him under his watchful eyes, that there was someone able to hide from him wouldn't do at all.

.-._.-._.

**July the 6th 1989**

**Godric's Hollow.**

The Potters were depressingly eating lunch at their house; it had been almost a year since Harry left them. During all that time Lily tortured herself by serving, now consciously, a fourth plate, uselessly hoping for her lost son to walk through the doorframe and join them for meals. James had taken to look at old pictures from when his children were 3 years old or younger, only there did Harry appear, he didn't figure in any photo after those years long past, and if he did it was only in the background, barely noticeable, and Henry had gone as far as to move to his brothers room to feel more connected to him. Nothing of that helped.

As they were finishing the fireplace roared, indicating that someone was calling them, James sullenly stood up and walked to the living room and found himself facing Dumbledore.

"Hello James, do you think I could come through?"—asked gently the old man.

"Of course Albus"—the fire intensified and soon after Albus Dumbledore stood in the living room of the Potters—"have you found anything Albus? Have you found our Harry?"

"Alas, I'm sorry to say no, and even more sorry to say I bring bad news"—at that moment the rest of the family joined them.

"What news Albus?"—asked Lily worried—"is it about Harry?"

"Yes, it has to do with him, I'm afraid that even though I have made my best efforts to keep the ministry looking for him, it has been decided that the search will be stopped, it has been a year already and no leads have been found, they have given up all hope of finding him, the only reason they have kept looking for so long if for Henry's sake, but Cornelius deemed it a waste of resources to take it any further"

"So, this is it then? They will let my baby wander alone because they don't want to spend more money?"—asked Lily.

"I know how it looks Lily, but take into account just how much time it has been already, they have already used too many resources"

"They won't bring back my brother then"—whispered Henry, but everyone heard him.

"They will keep the petition to the people to notify you in case they find him, but the ministry won't actively search for him any longer, I got other government to do the same, but my hands are tied, I can't do anything else, I have continued my efforts to find him using tracking charms, but it has been proved to be futile"

"What now? What can we do?"—asked James.

"Nothing, I'm afraid, there is nothing else to do, we have tried everything"—and he had, which was why not finding him hurt his pride too much.

"Thank you Albus, but we won't give up, Lily and I will think of something, I'm sure"

"Alright then, again, I'm sorry"—and with that he left the distraught family's home.

.-._.-._.

**July the 31th, 1990**

**Morondava, Menabe. Madagascar.**

Carlo Corvino, or Carl for short, woke up refreshed at the beginning of the day; it had been two years since he left Godric's Hollow and his life had improved greatly from there. He had been in many places, and the Language Lozenges that his future self had sent were of great help. After he left Belgium he went to France, where he didn't stay long before traveling a long way to Brazil, from there it was Peru and Bolivia, then Nicaragua before flying all the way to America where he navigated through the Mississippi until he reached the lake Ontario and crossed to Canada, he spent a few months there before finally taking a flight back to Europe, being ignored by most people came a long way to walking around security measures at the airport at Madrid.

After that he traveled to Malaga and crossed the Mediterranean before reaching Morocco, from there he made a short tour through Africa, passing Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozanbique, he then went up to Tanzania and Kenya before taking a long trek to the island of Madagascar, he made a point to explore the island, getting to see all the different species inhabiting it, he explored the full length of the Mahajanga province and then Toliara, stoping at the Menabe region where he was now.

During those years the shades had taught him much, Horus had reluctantly taught him how to fight with a spear after he was able to transform the dagger into said weapon, whereas Arlecchino had patiently shown him the art of swordsmanship, Pedrolino taught him to use the dagger, while Birghella trained him in unarmed combat, Pulcinella drilled in his head how to throw weapons effectively, starting with knives and finishing with simple playing cards, and Mezzetino would have taught him how to use a whip, if not for the fact that Harry only wanted to learn to use the weapons his dagger could transform into, so the shade ended up helping the child to gain more flexibility to make dodging easier, something that became useful when training with Pulcinella.

That was regarding his weapon training, however they had started teaching him magic half a year ago after they deemed his weapon handling good enough to not hurt himself while casting. From the few books he had read in the library he had learnt that all magic nowadays use Latin for spells, however the shades used a more ancient language that now didn't even had a name, this language was the same his future self had mentioned in the letter, and it was even more connected to magic than Latin, so being able to cast in this language made his spell both more powerful and easier to learn, which was a good thing, considering he was the actual Boy-Who-Lived and not his brother as everyone thought, he had seriously freaked out when he read about that little fact in his future self's journals.

Despite all this however, he had a big regret, and that was that he had not a single friend to share all of these experiences with, unfortunately he knew he could do nothing about it; the journals explained about the prophecy and he had heard it in the pensive from one of the memories that future Harry had sent him and he learnt that only dying by an AK would lift the curse that surrounded him, preferably by Voldemort's hand in order to fulfill the prophesy, something he would make sure happened in his first year, the Philosopher's Stone incident in 1991 would be his first chance to get rid of the damn thing forever.

He shook his head, he wouldn't be angry or sad today, it was his birthday after all, and even though he had nothing special planned for it he wouldn't sulk. He got ready and quickly got out of the trunk fully dressed.

"Good morning, young master"—greeted Pedrolino, Harry had early found out that this was the most devote of the shades, the loyal ones that is, Horus was still has irritable as ever.

"Hi Pedrolino, where is everyone else?"—asked the child looking around their camp, wich was nothing but the trunk where he slept and a bonfire.

"Arlecchino, Mezzetino and Pulcinella went hunting, Brighella didn't say where he was going and Horus disappeared sometime around midnight, I'm guessing he went to get some alone time, he can't stand to be around others too much as you know"

"Yeah, he is like that, so by when can we expect breakfast then?"

"I shouldn't be much longer; they left about an hour ago"

"Then they would be back in half an hour or so, care for a little spar while we wait?"

"If you are sure, then it's fine by me young master"—Pedrolino then conjured a pair of daggers (1) and took a stance, Carlo took out his dagger/sword/spear/wand and positioned himself too, not a second after both of them rocketed to each other—"your stance is wrong young master, your shoulder is unprotected, your knee is too high you can be easily be put off balance, your slashes are not fast enough, that one was good, your feet are too close to each other, you just exposed your neck young master, that stab was weak, make it stronger"—Pedrolino kept pointing out mistakes as they fought, and they did so until a throat clearing told them they were no longer alone.

"I see you didn't lose any time to start your morning activities"—said Horus—"but I believe you are at a disadvantage here, Pedrolino has two weapons while the child only has one, I believe it would be proper for him to have a second weapon, maybe this will help"—he then threw something at Harry and the child caught it with his free hand, it was a second dagger not unlike his own in shape, though this one was made of some bone-like material instead of silver, and the handle was wrapped in leather-like fabric—"it's made from an Erumpent's horn, and it has similar effects so I would be cautious, you don't want to explode you own hand, though I wouldn't mind if you did, I also found a pride of Nemea Lions, though they were only three females and one male, I killed one of the females and skinned it, the wrapping of the handle is made of that, and we will be eating its flesh today, it helps to strengthen the muscles and skin"

"So, you do care after all"—said Harry with mirth—"how did you know it was my birthday anyway?"

"Let's get something clear brat, I don't care about you, I'm only doing this because I have to and I didn't know it was your birthday!"—said Horus outraged, the amused smile on Harry's face didn't faltered though, which made Horus mutter some select words under his breath.

"You didn't have to get me the dagger though, yet you did, thanks, now Pedrolino, should we continue?"—asked Harry now with a grin plastered on his face.

"Well, you will need to learn to wield two daggers so it would be prudent from me to give you some pointers first"

About an hour later the other shades, save Brighella returned with their hunt, only to discover that breakfast was ready in the form of roasted Nemea Lion, they just shrugged, it wasn't as if it would go to waste, after all a few preserving charms and it would be as good as new whenever they wanted.

"So, are we leaving today?"—asked Arlecchino as Harry ate breakfast—"we have been here for a week now"

"Yeah, but I was thinking that we have been in this island long enough, I don't think there will be anything new further ahead. We should go back to Kenya and head to Egypt, sightsee around for a month or so before finally venturing into Asia, what Asian country is closest to Egypt?"—asked the child.

"Jordan or Israel are directly touching Egypt, however we could also sail through the Red Sea to Arabia, we can't do that however if you are planning to visit Cairo"—answered nonchalantly Pulcinella, the resident geography expert.

"Ugh, too much geographic information, so should we visit Cairo?"—asked Harry.

"It's a touristic attraction so I suppose it's worthwhile, we could go to Israel and from there head to Arabia, cross Oman and go directly to India. Israel, Arabia and India being the main attractions of the route"

"It's decided then, we will do just that"

"Good"—said Brighella as he arrived from wherever he had gone, he was carrying a cage in one hand—"I doubt a lemur would enjoy travelling much on a ship, and we are doing that anyway to return to Kenya"—he then got closer to Harry and gave him the cage—"happy birthday"

"Uh? You got me a lemur for my birthday?"

"Yeah, couldn't think of anything else, I was actually looking for anything to give you and then the little rascal got in front of me, threw me a mango, the bastard, anyway I chased it, captured it, caged it and here he is, I think it's a he"

"It's a he"—commented Mezzetino, pointing to the shoulder area of the animal—"it's a ring tailed lemur and in that race only males have a scent gland near the armpit, why did you get a lemur anyway? They are very stinky animals"

"Don't know"

"How do you guys know all of this?"—asked Harry, though he had asked that particular question a lot of times in the past.

"Amalgam of souls, remember?"—answered Horus offhandedly.

"I would have the scent glands neutralized if I were you, these animals tend to have stench fights with each other, and trust me, you don't want that smell on your clothes"—said Mezzetino.

"Thank you anyway, for the gifts; we should go though, the sooner we reach Kenya the sooner we start for Egypt"

"How will you call the little bugger though?"—asked Brighella.

"Hmmm, I don't know, we can think of something later"

.-._.-._.

**Same day**

**Godric's Hollow.**

The Potters sat with friends at the enlarged table out in the backyard, it was Henry's, and Harry's, birthday today, and they didn't want to be depressed, if anything for their son's sake. Henry had long ago returned to normal, he still used his brother's room, and he still referred to it as such, and more often than not joined his father in looking at old pictures, but he didn't sulk anymore and spent more time with his friends, he still wanted to know his brother, but with the little time he had spent with him it was hard to actually miss him, yet he would take the time to get to know him when they found him, and he was sure they would. At least he hoped so.

The cake on the table actually read 'Happy birthday Harry & Henry', that got many risen eyebrows but they didn't care, and avoided all questions about it. They hoped their son would return, the ministry had long ago taken out the petition to notify them if Harry was found, they said it was a lost cause, it had been two years after all. Dumbledore told them that other governments had started doing the same, now all hope of finding him were gone, the only thing left was for him to come back on his own. The only consolation they had was the confirmation from Dumbledore that Harry's name was still listed to attend Hogwarts next year, which indicated he was alive, but the owls still refused to deliver the letters they sent to him, there was just no way to let him know they wanted him back, that they had changed and wished to get to know him.

When Henry blew off the candles on the cake his wish was to recuperate Harry, the same wish he had made last year, he didn't held hopes for it to come true, but he wished that it would, nevertheless he decided that it wouldn't damper his birthday and the celebration went on as planned, but when all the invitees left the Potters went back to their mopping, except Henry who just left for his brother's room, and his parents couldn't blame him, he hadn't spent any time with Harry, whereas they had at least when he was a baby, they had a harder time forgetting about the whole deal. They went to sleep, and as all the nights before, they dreamt of their son coming back.

.-._.-._.

**July the 31th 1991**

**Bergen, Norway.**

Carl slept in that day; he had been doing that a lot lately, he now was 4.9 ft tall and his hair reached down his shoulders when untied, he usually had it tied though. The nutrient potions in combination with a mixed diet had helped to better his eyes and he no longer needed glasses, but he kept them just in case. His body was toned for a 11 years old, not marked like those guys appearing in the telly, but he was fit thanks to all his training with his five shades companions. As he readied himself he reminisced what he had done the last year. Concerning his travels he had gone to Egypt as planed and then to Israel where there was really nothing interesting for a wizard, so he left earlier than planned and visited Arabia, he stayed there for at least two months before sailing to India, staying there for a while, from there it was to China and then Japan, deciding to stay there a few weeks, then he did a quick visit to Korea before returning to China, going to Mongolia and then heading to Russia, the enormous country received a long stay of five months as he made his way to Finland, from where he went to Sweden and then Norway, from there it was a two days travel to Scotland, either by air or water, and seeing how his Hogwarts letter would arrive soon, at least he thought it would, he decided to wait for it there.

In all this time the shades had finished training him in handling weapons and fighting, and thought he was still unable to defeat any of them, they said if he was going to get better it was going to be through experience and not through more training. Now, his magic training was a different matter altogether, he had learnt more from his future self's books than from the shades, they always focused on magic using the ancient language, whereas the books explained the true nature of magic according to future Harry's discoveries, Thaumaturgy, the art to bend the laws, that's what magic really was.

According to the books, in ancient times wizards and witches were able to do much more than what they were able to do nowadays, but due to prohibitions and time they lost that capability, like that 'not being able to conjure gold' stuff, it was all in the mind, if a wizard set his mind on it then he could achieve it, it explained how some of those prohibitions came to be because wizards could take advantage of things and make themselves rich without any real effort, or stuff like that, though there were others that were created in order to maintain the balance of nature. Since wizards of old were able to bend reality to their will it could be really dangerous, the book dictated some restrictions that should be followed in order to prevent certain things from happening, like a complete species being extinguished. He didn't want to cause that, nevertheless the books authored by himself were really useful, there was even one on how to create new species, it was really hard to do it without altering balance, but it could be done, though he wouldn't risk it anytime soon.

The journals explained how he had come to that knowledge after finding the elfish communities, and how the trunk he had sent him was a result of thaumaturgy in action, being able to create infinite spaces inside finite containers was something thought impossible, yet there was nothing impossible for a thaumaturgist, hence the capacity to expand infinitely. It also explained that that was the reason babies seemed to do the impossible when doing accidental magic, like stopping a supposedly unstoppable curse.

He had learnt a lot about thaumaturgy, he had even tried using it a few time, transforming a few rock into gold, but he didn't want to go beyond that kind of stuff until he knew more, so he kept close to the shades teachings.

After he finished getting ready he got out of the trunk and was met by his pet lemur, Noro, who handed him an envelope, he looked at it and then looked around the area they were at, he saw a sleeping owl on a nearby tree, well he couldn't blame the poor thing, it was a long way from Scotland to Norway. He opened the envelope and read.

Dear Mr. Corvino,  
  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.  
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.  
  
Yours sincerely,   
  
Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress

Great! They send it until this day and they have the gall to tell him he only has until today to answer? Seriously, what the hell?

"You seriously are planning on going?"—asked Horus after seeing the letter.

"Yes, Little Voldy will be there, it's my chance to get rid of my curse. Besides, I have been away for too long"

"You really want to return to your family then? The master always loathed the Potters, but I suppose he knew you could turn out differently from him when he sent us"—commented Arlecchino.

"He actually expected me to be different from him, now, we should apparate to London or someplace in Scotland, otherwise the letter would take too long to arrive and it needs to be delivered today"

"Sigh, alright, shrink that thing then, and hold onto that pest you call a pet"—said Horus—"Pedrolino, take the owl, we will need it to deliver the letter after all"

After doing just that the seven of them disappeared in clouds of black smoke, which soon dissipated and the clearing was left empty as if they had never been there.

.-._.-._.

**(1)Imagine Riddick's daggers from the film.**

**What do you think? Good, bad, too long? Please R&R.**


	6. Chapter 6

Ch. 5: Let's roll.

**Still July 31th 1991**

**London, United Kingdom.**

Carlo and his bodyguards headed to the Leaky Cauldron after sending the owl from London back with an answer for Hogwarts; he was meanwhile having an internal struggle about the whole deal, which he had had a lot during the previous year. On one hand he wanted to go to Hogwarts, first of all because he needed to learn normal magic if he wanted to blend better with the crowd; something he couldn't learn from the shades and would be too hard to learn on his own, backed only by books; and second because there he would get a chance to get rid of that piece of soul Voldemort had ingrained in his scar and the curse that came with it. On the other hand however, there was the risk of meeting his family again; Henry was a given, but there was still a slight chance of meeting his parents as well during a random event or if Henry got hurt and they visited; he knew they would never recognize him as their son because of what Horus had done three years ago to prevent anyone from finding him, but he couldn't help but fear that they would see through it, he still wasn't sure if he would like that or not; and even if they didn't recognize him, he still wasn't sure how he would react to seeing them, that frightened him the most. In the end, going to Hogwarts and being freed overweighed the possibility of a confrontation with his former family.

They arrived at the tavern and Carlo issued instructions to his companions, Horus was to get information on what had been going on in England for the last three years, preferably about both worlds, but giving a priority to the magical world, for this purpose he was given a sack with a few galleons and pounds. Meanwhile he gave another sack of galleons to Pedrolino and a list of stuff to buy for him; he didn't want to reveal the secrets of his trunk needlessly so he needed to appear having a normal student's set. He then took a piece of parchment where he had written a note signed with a blood quill and handed it to Arlecchino along with the trunk that was full to the brim of his gold, instructing him to pay his tuition for Hogwarts at the bank as well as opening an investment account there, he had money enough to get by for a long while, but he knew it wouldn't last forever, so he needed a way to get more; and even though he could conjure gold thanks to his future self's books' teachings he wasn't willing to do it often, it was a taxing piece of magic. He wasn't able to work without his parents' permission, something he had no hopes of getting, so investment was his only option for now, something that would produce income even when in school, and he had enough money to at least buy shares for a small company. With their orders given, Carlo was left in the company of only Mezzettino, Brighella, Pulcinella and Noro, he then set to explore the magical alley.

.-._.-._.

**Horus**

The shade had no problem to find information on the goings on of the last three years; all he had to do was head directly for the only bookstore of the whole alley and ask for the newspaper of that period of time, the clerk seemed puzzled but did welcome the chance for business, however weird it might be that someone asked for old newspaper, while the clerk gathered the requested items Horus looked around the place, trying to point out any worthwhile title, though he focused mainly on history, given his present task.

He sensed movement nearby and turned to see his partner, Pedrolino, taking a book from the shelf he was looking at. Pedrolino looked at him, shrugged without saying a word and went to continue his quest. However, Horus saw behind him a group of people he was sure his master didn't want to see, he tried to decide quickly whether he should inform the child or ignore this fact, well, most of the tasks around the alley had been given to Pedrolino so Carlo was unlikely to meet them, thus why he decided to ignore it, he could always feign ignorance if asked. He took a few books from the history section that he thought might be of use and went to the front desk to retrieve the rest of his purchase, he shrunk it and headed for muggle London, he crossed his master on the way but continued after a brief nod.

His endeavor through the muggle world flowed even more easily than in the magical world, he like muggles in the aspect that they were more organized than wizards, he had easily found the newspapers he needed in a library near the pub and bought created replicates to take with him.

.-._.-._.

**Arlecchino**

The half-giant shade headed with determination to the marble building that was the crown of the alley, he entered and gave a polite bow to the goblins at the entrance, the goblins seemed to know what exactly he was and showed him respect, after all, shades were known warriors, and goblins respected warriors, which was why they despised wizards, they used cowardly methods to attack, and had forgotten how to really be honorable, honor was really important to a goblin. Arlecchino focused on his task and headed for the closest teller, the goblin looking at him without hesitation, the shade noticed that wizards received another kind of treatment from other goblins.

"What can Gringotts do for an honorable warrior like yourself?"—asked the teller.

"I come with two tasks"—this irked the goblin's attention, a shade with a task? From whom? Who was powerful enough to command a shade? If only they knew—"first I need to pay tuition for my master's schooling at Hogwarts, he goes by the name of Carlo Tommas Corvino"—the goblin seemed to be frozen in place, a child? A child commanding a shade? Preposterous! But he didn't know the circumstances so he didn't say a thing about it, however he made a mental note to remember the name and talk of this to Ragnok.

"Very well, the Hogwarts tuition is 250,000 galleons, are you going to pay in cash or will you make transference?"

"Cash, I'm afraid my master doesn't have a bank account"

"Understood. Am I to understand that your other business here is to open an account for said master? Do you have a document enabling you to perform such an action?"—Arlecchino showed him the letter that Harry had given him.

"Correct, however I would like to talk with the chief goblin, there are certain details about this account that need to be discussed in more…private settings"

"…very well, I will inform the war chief and if he is available he will summon you"—he then sent another goblin to inform Ragnok and then set to make the requested transaction.

Arlecchino didn't have to wait long for the goblin to come back and take him to meet the chief goblin, warriors didn't have to wait for a goblin, and goblins expected the same treatment from warriors.

"War chief Ragnok will see you now"—said the goblin escorting him and opened the door for him, Arlecchino walked into the office and without waiting for invitation he walked to the desk and sat in front of the goblin behind it.

"I want to open an account for my master, however there are certain circumstances that need to be discussed beforehand and information I need"—said Arlecchino bluntly, goblins hated to be made to wait.

"What information do you require?"—asked Ragnok with a smirk, he liked it when he didn't have to take meetings on his hands to make them advance. Wizards were such idiots that thought using subterfuge was clever when dealing with a goblin, this made meeting advance slower than they should.

"I want to know if Gringotts has a muggle facade, if so which?"

"Yes we have, it's in fact the well known Cayman Island's bank, Euro Bank Corporation (1). Does your master wish to open an account there?

"Yes, he wanted his account opened in a muggle bank, it will be an investment account and investments will be made in the muggle world, since their population is bigger than the magical one it has more money flowing, profits will be split in half, one going to the muggle account, the other being converted into magical currency, we are ready to offer Gringotts a 5% fee for this service"

"WHAT? 5%? Are you and your master nuts? We collect 15% fees when dealing with currency exchange, and 10% when managing investment accounts! You can't expect Gringotts to accept only a 5%! You can't walk here and make such an outrageous 'offer'"

"Very well then, my master shall take his money elsewhere, we tried your bank first because you are the only one in the magic world, however my master is not necessarily in need of a magical bank, it's just easier for him this way, though I must mention that even you must notice that 5% will bring more gold to your bank, not many wizards need to change galleons for pounds so that 15% is not really much when talking about yearly income, and investment accounts are rare for wizards and witches, even those who have this kind of account don't invest in the muggle world, so profit from those is scarce, we are offering a 5% bigger than your 25%, when speaking of yearly income of course(2), sadly most common wizards and witches posses more money than some rich muggles so you are losing a lot of money here, by your leave"—he was already opening the door when he hear the expected 'wait'

"…fine, we shall accept the 5% on the condition that the money be spent only on Gringotts affiliated business, both in the muggle and magical worlds, only when there is not an affiliated to provide a purchase will this clause be ignored"

"Unacceptable, my master will be free to purchase wherever he wishes to regardless of affiliation to your bank or lack thereof. You should know, sir, that I'm not the only shade at my master's service, shall you anger my master you will be facing six extremely powerful shades, not in your best interest since at best you will lose half your goblins if such a confrontation were to happen, at worst you will be extinguished from Britain"—Ragnok paled at that but his face remained unaffected, except Arlecchino could notice he gulped.

"Alright then, a muggle investment account which profits will be split in halves, one of which will be converted to magical currency and we will receive a 5% fee, is that correct? Well then, you also mentioned circumstances, what circumstances?"

"My master goes by the name of Carlo Tommas Corvino, however this name doesn't exists, as far as we know, my master's real name is Harold Jacobus Potter"—he notices the goblins eyes widened and filed it to inform Carlo later—"as you can guess, we don't have the necessary documents to open an account by that name, yet we wish it done, I assume it can be done?"

"For an individual fee to myself it could, and another for keeping this matter silent"

"We expected no less, and we know that when dealing with your kind one fee will only cover one time, we can't expect you to keep silent after a week or even after a day, if you keep this matter quiet as long as possible we are willing to add another 2% fee that will be paid directly to you, is this acceptable?"—the shade saw the eyes of the goblin shine with greed and knew it was.

"Perfectly so, I shall make the arrangements, but your master shall come here or send a bit of his blood in order to enable the transaction, also, your master's parents never closed his trust vault, and it has been filling over the last three years from the main Potter vault, your master is in all his right to take that money and put it wherever he wishes to, shall I arrange for it to be moved into his new account?"

"I shall return with my master at a later hour, he will decide then, will two hours be enough?"

"Yes, bring him here by then"—with that the shade walked away. Leaving Ragnok pondering if it had been a good deal, it was sure to bring more gold to the magical side of the bank from the muggle side, and the fee though not really acceptable would provide more income than the acceptable fees, given how little dealing the magical world had with the muggle world, in the end he decided he would wait and see, the bank never loses money, not even when business goes bad.

.-._.-._.

**Pedrolino**

The shade walked out of the potion store, after buying his masters supplies for said course, and headed back to his master, he was done with the purchasing, on the way there he was met by Arlecchino and learnt everything had gone well with the goblins, they reached their master as he was looking at a quidditch shop, at the same time Horus returned from the muggle side of London.

"Master, here I have your purchases"—announced Pedrolino and handed a bag with all the items to the expecting hand of the child, who then proceeded to inspect the contents and with a nod say it was all there, he then looked at Arlecchino.

"The goblins have accepted your conditions, though a bit reluctantly, the chief goblin expects you to go there yourself or send a bit of blood to finish the proceedings"—informed the tallest member of the group.

"I shall go there myself, when are we expected?"

"Two hours"—he received a 'fine' by answer before the child turned to Horus.

"I got the newspaper from the last three years, you are in for a long reading, I also got some books on recent history that might have relevant events around the world, newspaper mostly covers only national happenings, not often do they bother with international matters"

"Good, now then we shall head to get my wand, afterwards we can go to Gringotts"—said the child.

"What do you need a wand for? You already have one"—asked Horus, the only one to ever question Harry's decisions, mostly just to mess with him, but sometimes it was real curiosity.

"My wand, according to my future's self, is the brother to Voldermort's wand, I won't risk anyone else getting their hands on it, and it always helps to have a secondary wand. According to the journals and some books on the topic most aurors have one and they didn't actually chose them, they just get a replica of their own, same wood, same length, same core, but it won't be the same tree, the exact same length nor the same animal that the core originated from, so it won't be the same, it will still work well for the user, but never as effectively as their own, however here I have the opportunity to have an EXACT replica of my own wand, same origin of the core, same tree, and the same precise length, and I won't let go such an opportunity"

"Point noted, alright, let's go then, we don't want anyone else getting their hands on it at all"

Harry and his companions headed for the wand shop and entered without hesitation, Harry however froze just as he entered, the shades behind him looked inside and saw the reason was no other than his ex-family.

.-._.-._.

The Potters had been shopping for Henry's school stuff now that he had received his letter for Hogwarts; seriously, whoever thought that sending the letter during the child's birthday if they were born within the time limit was stupid(3); their last stop was to buy his wand, they decided it was for the best since there was always the risk of it taking too long.

During all their shopping they never stopped looking around in case they saw their lost child; he would have received his letter the same day Henry did. They saw a group of people who stood out quite a lot, five of them wore masks and one of them was as big as Hagrid at the very least, the big guy, one of the masked men and the only unmasked man separated from the group and went their different ways, the last three members of the group seemed to just wander around. As they shopped they saw a couple of them a few times, it was hard to ignore them for some reason, maybe it was the red hair, but most likely it were the masks, they made them looks suspicious, and everyone in the alley seemed wary of them.

As they entered Ollivander's they thought that Harry should have been there with them, they would have liked to see him get his wand, it was one of the most special moments for any witch or wizard, Henry was trying his second wand when the complete group they had seen before entered the shop, Ollivander looked at them and immediately seemed to gain a completely different attitude, his mysterious yet creepy behavior banished completely in the presence of the strangers, his eyes though seemed focused on the centre of the group, his eyes low enough to be considered improper.

Lily decided to discover what had him so interested, surely it was not their bits, and she discovered a child she had not noticed at all, he had green eyes and long black hair down to his upper back tied in a pigtail, it was messy, it reminded her a lot of her husband and son, he was a little bit taller than Henry and had a healthy tanned skin; she sensed she should know who he was but something prevented her from putting her finger on it, her heart was beating quite hard but she didn't know why. She didn't notice but her husband had the exact same feelings and for some reason all thought of Harry banished when looking at the child.

"It's good to meet you at last Mr. Corvino"—said Ollivander quite solemnly—"came for your wand I suppose"—Harry only nodded, unable to speak for fear that his voice might alert his parents of who he was, they seemed unable to recognize him, and he was glad that Horus' spell was working—"alright, lest try this one"—he offered a rectangular box to Carlo, who took the wand inside and waved it, behind Ollivander several boxes flew away—"it's a no then"

"Please spare us all the drama Mr. Ollivander, we know from good source that you always know which wand belongs to which wizard, you giving people several wands to try before giving them the one is nothing more than show, I would like to skip this"—said Horus in a very irritated tone—"no one is as attuned with magic as you, not even Dumbledore, you certainly have not his power, but you are more aware, otherwise you wouldn't know the name of your clients without even asking, in fact you would have not noticed our master without that level of awareness, and I'm certain you know what we are, you-don't-want-to-piss-us-off"—he said the last part slowly and sounding dangerous.

Ollivander seemed to pale and gulped quite loudly, of course he knew what the group in front of him were, and he of course knew they were dangerous, but he liked to add the drama to the wand purchasing process, it gained him clients. But in this case he had not wanted to do it for the sake of drama, he knew who the boy really was, and it was quite a coincidence that he had entered as his brother tried for wands, he had focused his attention to the newest arrival instead of the client he was already attending on purpose, this way his parents would get to see their son get his wand, just as they wished they could; no, this was not for drama's sake, he wanted to make a couple of haunted people a little bit happier, yet it had backfire thanks to the boy's rather questionable companions and now the cat was out of the bag, he decide to finish this quickly and brought the boys' wands, he gave Harry his and Henry the other, and asked them very politely, almost begging actually, to not reveal his secret. The Potters were rather put out by the revelation but accepted to not tell anyone, they were more interested in the feeling of elation they were having after seeing a total stranger get his wand, Harry and his guards couldn't care less. Once outside Harry turned around a hugged Horus, who was surprised and then outraged at the gesture.

"HEY! Get off me you brat!"—yelled the shade, making quite a few passersby turn and look at them.

"Thanks"—uttered Harry still holding him for dear life—"I didn't know what to do, or how much more I would endure to be there with them, thanks for making it end quickly"

"I say get off!"—Horus responded, still trying to get Harry to let go—"I really wanted to leave faster myself, it has nothing to do with you, damn self centered brat!"—Horus finally noticed a lot of people looked at them like weird animals in exhibition—"All damn it!"—and he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, taking Harry with him, the other shades quickly followed.

.-._.-._.

They had apparated in muggle London on top of a building as to avoid any witnesses, the zanni joined them not long after, and after they were able to calm Harry down they headed back to Gringotts to finish the last details of his new account, deciding against taking the money from his trust vault lest it be known he was back in England; after that they decided it would be in their best interest to get a place to stay at. They had enough to buy a small apartment, but it would be impractical; they would stay there only a month and then Harry planned to keep traveling during summer, and be back a few weeks before the summer break ended. So they opted to rent a room in a hotel nearby the station.

The following month was extremely boring for Harry; he had gotten accustomed to traveling and knowing places; being in a single place with nothing interesting to do was something relatively new to him. Though he tried to entertain himself by figuring out if he wanted to board the train or if he wanted to make a big entrance, maybe if he did the later his chances to make friends would increase since no one would be unable to ignore him after that, he could have Horus transform into his argentavis form and take him to Hogsmeade and land in front of the station just as everybody was getting off the train, that was sure to make heads turn around, or he could go directly to Hogwarts and crash into the sorting ceremony claiming to have been delayed by some random business, but then he decided against all of that; he was practically planning his own dead at the end of the year. Granted, the journals said he would come back, but that was his future self, he couldn't be one hundred percent sure if it would work the same way for a younger version, and with these doubts, if he managed to make some friends he would hesitate when the time to confront Voldemort finally comes, willingly attracting attention to himself could work against all he was trying to accomplish in his first year, so he decided to go by normal means and try to be as inconspicuous as possible, he could make friends during second year if he managed to survive.

When the day to finally leave arrived he was actually relieved that the boredom was over, the shades would escort him to King's Cross' station and after he left they would fly all the way to Hogwarts and meet him there. They left the room they had been staying at and signed out before heading for the station, Harry had his trunk attached to his belt and Noro hanging from his arm, as they entered the station several heads turned to look at the convoy of masked red heads, yet Carlo noticed no one saw him, he said good bye to the shades and as he was nearing the train he heard Pulcinella calling him, he turned around just in time to catch a small package with his hand.

"A little something I got for you, open it once you are settled in the train"—and with that he turned around and followed the rest of the shades out of the barrier. Harry looked at the package, shrugged and entered the train, making a mental note to thank Pulcinella for the gift later when he saw them.

.-._.-._.

**(1)Don't own either the name or the bank, only using its name for fictional and non-profitable purposes.**

**(2)I don't have the slightest idea about economy, I'm just making all this up.**

**(3)I know it doesn't work like that but I wanted it that way, so piss off.**

**I don't know but I believe there is nothing really note worthy in this chapter so I consider it filler, but still I hope you liked it, I will be working tonight and maybe tomorrow morning on the next chapter and I might have it ready by midday, SYA.**

**R&R.**


	7. Chapter 7

Ch. 6: Sorting

Albus Dumbledore looked outside of his office from the window; his eyes fixed on the train station at the village nearby. He was very troubled, for many things that had happened during the last summer. He looked at his desk, on it he saw the only letter that had refused to leave the castle, which was addressed to Harry Potter, the lost son of Lily and James, and the brother of the boy who lived. That was one of the many thoughts running through his head. The child was still missing and not even Hogwarts was able to find him, how he was hiding was a mystery, and he might never know.

The second thing occupying his mind was the year to come and the new students, two of them particularly. First there was Henry Potter and all the plans he had for him, which would start developing this year. And then there was the mystery of Carlo Corvino. He had received word from Ollivander that the brother wand to Voldemort's had an owner at last, but he had thought that it would go in Henry's hand; instead it had chosen the Italian boy. This however, was not the only enigma surrounding the child, his six companions were also noteworthy. Where the child had found _shades_ of all things and how he had come to make them his servants was unknown, but he would find out; he refused to believe that a child was capable of creating one and not dying, let alone six.

The old wizard sighed heavily, so young and the child already showed signs of being so dark; having shades as companions could be nothing less. And having the brother wand to Voldemort's could very well be a sign of a powerful wizard in the making. He would need to watch the boy carefully as to not let him taint young Henry or interfere with his plans. He was still a child so he could still be swayed to the light. But in the whole scheme of things the child was, as of now, irrelevant. He could work on changing Mr. Corvino's ways later; he needed to focus on Henry. He saw the speck of smoke rising from the express' chimney and went to ready himself to receive the students, things were about to get started.

.-._.-._.

Earlier on the Express, Carlo sat alone in one of the many compartments playing a game of Solitaire to pass the time with the deck of cards that Pulcinella had given him before boarding the train; Noro had left as soon as the train started to move, surely to explore the whole train. It had been already two and a half hours since the train left the station, and he felt a lump in his throat as he thought about the place. His former family had been there to leave Henry, of course. But after their loved child had boarded the train both, Lily and James, had started looking around; maybe for him. Fat chance of revealing himself just to be brought back to that hellhole. James had even used a few spells, probably to locate him, and Carlo was relieved when it was made obvious that those failed to point at him.

They had kept trying until the whistle of the locomotive attracter their attention and they waved goodbye to Henry. He had felt a morbid pleasure when he saw them crestfallen. He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and focused on his game. Many would get easily bored when playing alone, but Carlo was used to it. One would if they had no one to play with, and even if he had the shades company they didn't make for good playmates.

He finished his game and shuffled the deck for another one. A few minutes into the game the door of his compartment was opened. This startled him; no one had seemed to notice even the compartment before, probably a side effect of the curse. There stood a bushy haired girl, accompanied by a chubby boy, the boy however seemed as startled as him, surely he had been unable to notice the compartment like all the other, but that left the question of why the girl could? What's more, she was eyeing him with what he assumed was disapproval, but that was impossible, no one noticed him ever. Her words however meant she did.

"I don't think that gambling games are allowed at Hogwarts"—she said haughtily.

Carlo's eyes widened for a second before his occlumency training kicked in and he was able to hide it.

"Then it's good that we are not at Hogwarts just yet"—he answered with an even voice, even though inside he was a mess of questions. He noticed the boy with her seemed even more put off by his 'sudden appearance'.

"Even then, those games are a bad vice and you shouldn't play them"—she commented matter-of-factly. Carlo decided he didn't like her attitude.

"Did you need something or you just enjoy bugging people?"—she actually seemed to be embarrassed for a second before her demeanor turned back to normal.

"Actually yes, have you seen a toad? Neville"—she pointed at the boy behind her—"lost his"

"I haven't seen a toad, have you contacted a prefect?"—he said turning back to his game. He noticed that Neville had problems keeping his attention on him; something the girl yet to be named had no problems with. Hell the only reason the plump boy was still able to notice Carlo was because the girl kept talking to him making it impossible to ignore the green eyed boy.

"We did but they are at a meeting and said to go to them later, we decided to look for it meanwhile"—Neville had wanted to comment that she had omitted the fact that it was her who decided it, but he didn't. Carlo picked up on this and concluded the girl was very bossy.

"Too bad then. Please close the door as you leave and if you see a lemur let him be"

"Lemur? I thought only cats, toads and owls were allowed, why do you have a lemur? And where is it? Surely you don't let him roam free around the train? He could bite someone and who knows how many sicknesses he could transmit!"—She would have rambled further, but Carlo's glare stopped it.

"First of all, Noro is vaccinated so you can rest your mind about him having a disease. Second! He is very well behaved and wouldn't bite anyone unless provoked. What I let my lemur do is none of your business. And you must be a muggleborn if you don't even know that there is an exception in the rules for familiars. It's very rare for a first year to have a familiar bond so that exception is seldom used, however it exist and as long as you don't know all of the facts you shouldn't jump to conclusions!"—The girl was taken aback by his outburst but then something he said clicked and she looked puzzled.

"So the lemur, Noro was it? Is your familiar?"—she didn't even bother to deny the fact that she was muggleborn, or ask what that was supposed to imply.

"That's what I said to the school, though I'm not sure"—He looked at his game and sighed in frustration, games helped keep him distracted but they were not good for calming him when stressed. He detached his trunk from his belt and enlarged it, which made both visitors' eyes widen, before opening the seventh compartment, storing the deck of cards inside and taking a book of herbology, the only one in the syllabus he had yet to read. Reading helped him more to relax, and even though he would like to read something else, it was inside the second compartment, which he wouldn't reveal to anyone. The bushy haired girl's bossiness seemed to come back with a vengeance then.

"You lied to the school? How could you do something so vile? And how did you do that with your trunk? We are not supposed to do magic outside of school"—Carlo sighed in frustration, didn't the girl recognize a dismissal when it was rubbed on her face? Why was she still here at all?

"I didn't lie, Noro could be my familiar. I'm not sure because I don't know how a familiar bond is, and even if he is not my familiar I was not about to leave him alone, and what is it to you? For that matter why do you care if I do magic out of school? Though you just keep showing your ignorance of the magical world, the trunk is charmed to shrink and enlarge with a command, I'm not actually doing magic, you ignorant busybody!"—Again the girl was taken aback, but this time it seemed that it was accompanied by some indignation, and a bit of sadness.

"I…I'm sorry. I didn't want to bother you, but I thought that…"

"That I was doing magic, well I was not, and even if I was it's not your place to reprimand anyone, you are not the authority. Though I'm perfectly able to do magic in the train, otherwise it would be useless to ask the prefects for help since they can only help you by using magic. However they are still underage, just like us. The fact that they can do magic inside the train while still being underage means that we too can use magic in the train if we so wish for, for example"—he then took out his dagger/wand/etc. both the girl and Neville freaked out by the weapon—"what's the toad's name?"—he looked at the boy, who seemed to shy away at being addressed directly.

"T...t…Trebor"

"Alright. _Gánga eom onr ebrithil Trebor_"—he chanted as he waved the dagger, it wouldn't do for anyone to spot him doing wand, motion and wordless magic, even though he could, but better let people think he was more at their level. Not even five seconds later a toad came soaring and landed on Neville's hand, which earned Carlo a good pair of awed stares. The girl, who still hadn't introduced herself, seemed unable to restrain her bossy mouth and the questions started again.

"How did you do that? Why did you use a knife instead of a wand? What spell was that? I don't think I have read about it, it didn't sound like any other I have read about! And it's not in our school books, where did you learn it?..."—Carlo decided to just cut the interrogation short.

"In that same order: Magic. Not a knife but a dagger and it's in fact my wand. The spell has no name. You can't read about it. Of course it doesn't sound like any other since it's a different language. And it's none of your business, so piss off!"

"Stop yelling at me!"—she finally snapped.

"Then stop trying to get people to do what you want! You have no right to demand anything from anyone, yet you act as if you must know everything from everyone. You are nothing special, and if you keep acting like everyone must tell you everything then you will be alone for a long while"—that last comment seemed to strike a chord inside her and her eyes turned watery but her expression remained the same. From this Carlo deduced that she had not many friends to begin with, so him pointing out that she never would, given her personality, must have hurt; not that he cared about that, she was at fault there. The fact that she didn't change her actual expression meant that she was very prideful as well; she didn't want to show him that his words affected her, even if the tears gave it away.

.-._.-._.

After the pair of intruders had left, with the girl being in tears, Carlo had stored his book back into his trunk. He would never be able to read peacefully with all the questions invading his mind right after his encounter with the bossy girl, who, Carlo noted, forgot to introduce herself, how rude!

The biggest question right now being: How was she able to see him? No one but his shades companions were ever able to. The letter he received a little over 3 years ago said that only those who wished the best for him would be able to notice him, but he very much doubted that was the case with this girl; even less with all that transpired during their brief meeting. Maybe if he knew more about her it would be easier to answer his questions.

He then started listing what he knew about here by his deductions. First, she is bossy and seemingly arrogant; but by the short lapses where she seemed vulnerable it was clear that was just a facade, so she is probably really insecure of herself; with her being bossy too, it could mean she had not much interaction with other people.

She is very inquisitive too by how many questions she made in rapid succession, and by the way she reacted when he took out the book she is an abide reader; probably derived from her lack of human interaction, or maybe that was the cause instead of an effect.

By how many times she alluded at the school rules, she is also very strict when it came to following them, so she probably relies a lot on authority figures, namely teachers; this probably meant she had been bullied during her earlier education and teachers were her only support; not an uncommon occurrence for muggleborns. Humans as a whole hate what they don't understand, so muggle children witnessing accidental magic from muggleborns was a recipe for bullying, with a few exceptions here and there; sadly, in magical Britain, said bullying didn't stop once they entered the magical world, what with all the purebloodist society and all.

She had also given the impression that she was not a thinker. Oh she has probably a lot of booksmarts, but she relies only on hard facts and has not an open mind, something that should have gone once she entered the magical world, most skeptical muggleborns stop being so once they entered the magical world, she obviously didn't…that last deduction gave him stop.

She was skeptical! Even though she had seen the magical world by herself she was still having her doubts about it. She doesn't really believe in magic that much yet, and yet she has the ability to use it. If the books his future self had written where to be believe then she could alter reality, just like any other wizard or witch could.

The power of magic, the true power of altering reality that every magical possesses, relies on belief and willpower. However that girl is the opposite, she is strong-willed alright, but the factor of her disbelief is what made her able to see him, right now she is in a bubble where magic not aimed at her lost its effects for a short while. So while most wizards shield themselves by 'believing' that they were being shielded, this disbelief of her, if nurtured, could make it so no magic could have an effect on her because she simply didn't believe in its effects.

Right now, if a curse was aimed at her directly then by the belief of the caster it would indeed affect her, but if it was a wide area no aimed specifically at her and which effects she didn't know nor believed in then it would in fact not affect her at all. This of course meant that once she saw any magic, spell, curse, or otherwise, have an effect on anything else that was not her; or once she read about it given her nature, this pseudo-immunity would be worthless against that specific piece of magic. So once she learnt about notice-me-not charms or other similar magic she would probably stop noticing him like everyone else.

This of course brought another thought to his mind, if she could nullify the effects of magic by not knowing nor believing in them, then he could very well do the same. He smirked; this would need to be further tested.

.-._.-._.

The rest of the trip went without further incidents and they arrived at Hogsmeade's station during the early night, he had already changed into hi special uniform made of basilisk scales and dragon hide mix along with his acromantula silk shirt. Something any pureblood worth his sneer would envy, of course that with him being unnoticeable, he wouldn't be receiving any of the envious glares his garments would otherwise garner.

The first years were being now assembled by a half giant that Carlo vaguely remembered from his days at the Potter's, he was a friend of James and Lily and sort of a low rank worker here at Hogwarts. Carlo joined the group of eleven years old and followed the giant of a man to the shore of a lake, where they were instructed to board on boas _'no more than four a boat' _had been Haggrid's words.

Once they were all on board of a boat, Carlo being alone in his, they started moving forward on their own.

"Heds dun"—warned Haggrid when they approached a bunch of low top trees, but the man was the only one who needed to lower his head to prevent being knocked out of his boat—"You'll get your firs sight of Howars now"—he announced and not a second later the group of future students got the first view of their future school.

It was a beautiful sight indeed, but Harry had seen so many other more beautiful structures during his travels that the only reason he kept staring was because of the novelty of this one, but it soon wore off and it was just another building, a great one yes, but not the greatest he had seen; that title belonged, in his opinion, to both Catherine Palace and Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, for sheer beauty and he was planning on visiting Germany next summer, if he lived past this year of course, and visit Linderhof Palace and see if it was as impressive as he imagined, he had heard about Munich Residenz too. The fact that they had been built without magic at all only added to their magnificence.

He was taken out of his musing by the sound of someone pounding heavily on a wooden door, he shook of the disorientation and discovered that his body had moved on its own, following the other first years and the half-giant. The door opened just slightly and a stern looking woman, who Carlo also remembered visiting the Potters once or twice, came out.

"Tha firs yers, professor McGonagall"—said the man. So, McGonagall, at last he started getting names.

"Thank you Haggrid"—and now he finally knew the name of their guide—"are all of them present?"—she asked meaningfully. Haggrid seemed to be crestfallen at the question.

"He ain't here professor"—answered Haggrid and McGonagall seemed to be saddened too, but she soon composed herself and nodded. Was it possible they were talking about him? Meh, whatever.

"Alright then"—she then addressed the children—"follow me"

.-._.-._.

(I'm not writing McGonagall's speech about the houses; everyone has memorized it by now)

Carlo watched impassive as the Deputy Mistress went into the great hall by herself and left the children unsupervised, yeah, that's a great idea right there. As soon as she was past the door a blond boy who seemed to be trying to look important approached his brother and his group. He didn't bother to hear what they said to each other, he only knew that Henry insulted the boy and he got mad, fortunately before any trouble could arise all their attention was taken by a couple of ghosts passing by and discussing something about some Peeves guy. His year mates were terrified by their ghostly forms and some screamed in fright, this got the attention of the ghosts themselves and they started speaking about them and how they hoped they were in their house, the fat one apparently was the Hufflepuff ghost.

It was after that small incident that the Deputy Headmistress, McGonagall finally returned and led them to the front of the hall. Carlo noticed that the ceiling was bewitched to look show the outside sky, the girl he had briefly met during the train ride said she had read this fact as if it was not obvious.

Once they were all at the front of the head table, they had to heard to a so called song from a talking hat (not writing it either) which was the responsible of sorting the students. He had read about the hat from his future counterpart's journals since it was a necessary piece of knowledge for events that could happen in the future, but his future self had called it 'The Founders' Hat' and never mentioned anywhere that it was the responsible of the sorting, he should have been able to deduce that though, but he never put much thought to it.

McGonagall had started calling names once the hat finished its song and he tuned her out until his name was called.

"Carlo Corvino"—stated the witch, who didn't seem to notice him walking towards the hat—"Carlo Corvino?"—she called again. Carlo sighed; this was going to be a long year if this was to be the norm until he got rid of his curse.

"I'm already here"—he state tonelessly, startling not only McGonagall but the entire faculty, except for the turban guy who looked curious instead, and the student body as well, including his year mates. The Deputy Headmistress shook off her embarrassment at not noticing a student and awkwardly put the hat on Carlos head as he sat on the stool.

_Hmm…what do we have here? You're an intriguing individual Mr. Corvino, you're not who you say you are, yet I'm unable to dete__rmine your actual identity—_Carlo sighed in relief, it wouldn't do if his plans crumbled because of a ragged hat—_I would appreciate it if you refrained from calling me that, I know my appearance is not the best, but it's still rude to point it out. Now, whe__re to put you? You have many traits from every house Mr. Corvino, something unusual I must say. You value knowledge and don't have any qualms about spending long periods of time to acquire it, yet it's not the knowledge you want, but the power it can give __you, Ravenclaw is not for you. _

_Power, that's one of the things you seek the most, the power to prove yourself better than one other, hmm, who could that other be? Your brother, you have been wronged and want revenge, something proper of a Slytherin, and you're cunning enough. But you are not willing to use or hurt others to achieve your revenge, you only want to prove that they lost a big opportunity; you prefer doing things on your own before making others do your bidding, so Slytherin is not for you either._

_You're brave too, and adventurous too, but you're not hotheaded like most Gryffindors. You like to have a plan before putting yourself in danger, and you have a coldness to you that would make it difficult for you to fit in there. You fit in Gryffindor, but Gryffindor isn't fit for you._

_Hmm, what's this? You're determined to work for what you wish. You're aware that you need to work hard to achieve both, knowledge and power come at that cost and you are willing to pay it, to sweat, bleed and cry for wha__t's your goal, not many can claim that. You're also very loyal, to those you deem worthy, but loyal nonetheless, not very trusting but you would hold onto those who gain your trust. You wouldn't hurt for your own gain, but you would to defend your close on__es. That's definitely something proper of any "_HUFFLEPUFF!"—the hat shouted out loud the last part. Carlo felt relieved; this had taken too long for his liking. He had no qualms about what house he ended up in, but he had hoped it would be decided fast.

He got up from the stool and walked towards the Hufflepuff table, where he was receiving some applause. His housemates had a hard time keeping their attention on him, yet seemed to be doing a better job than the other houses or the faculty. Hufflepuff were more notorious for their loyalty than for their hard work, as such it stands to reason that they would wish the best for one of their own. He smiled at that thought, if this was to be his house, maybe the year wouldn't be so bad after all.

.-._.-._.

**WARNING!**

**I want you to read this to avoid being flamed next chapter. First of all I want to make clear that I dislike rushed stories, I just don't care about reading them because it is kind of boring to read a rushed story. However, I find myself having to write the early development of this story as being rushed. Why? You might ask. The thing is that during first year there are few events of interest that will happen, so I plan on writing a brief overview of classes, the passing of the seasons and other trivial things to the story, and focusing on detailing only important events for this first year like the Halloween incident or the stone retrieval, they will definitely happen differently and there are a couple of other things that will happen too, but that would be telling. So in short I will write the whole first year in one, maybe a long chapter, though I'm not too sure about how long, I just wanted to warn you now.**

**I hope you liked the chapter as much as I liked writing it, it almost wrote itself. R&R.**


	8. Chapter 8

**I WARNED you before about first year being compressed in one single, possibly larger than normal, chapter. So don't flame because I told you in advance.**

**Also I want to apologize about a mistake I made in my previous chapter, Peterhof Palace is in St. Petersburg as well, not Germany as I believed, I already changed that.**

Ch. 7: First Year in a nutshell…a big one.

Carlo Tommas Corvino, actually Harold Jacobus Potter, sat alone in his compartment in the Hogwarts Express, which was about to take off from Hogsmeade's Station, while contemplating the events that had transpired during this last year.

First of all, the rest of the sorting had gone smoothly. He learned that the rude girl from the train was named Hermione Granger; after which he felt stupid for not recognizing her from his future self's journals, she had been mentioned quite a lot as a constant nuisance to Harry's plans; the girl was sorted into Gryffindor. Then all noise came to a sudden stop, and it came at the mention of his name, or rather his former name.

When Harry Potter had been called everyone wondered if the lost child would finally appear. Everyone knew about the runaway because it had been quite a scandal three prior years, the Potters had lost a lot of standing over that, and no pureblood lost the opportunity to question their fitness to parent the boy who lived; only Dumbledore's advocating for them had stopped the ministry from taking Henry and giving him to another family.

A couple of minutes passed and no one came forth, obviously. That's when from the corner of his eye he caught movement at the head table, when he turned to see who it was all hi saw was the retreating back of his former mother—_"What's she doing here?__"_—he had thought to himself. According to the journals, Lily Potter had been a freelance researcher at this point in time, and had remained so for a long time before joining the Unspeakables in an attempt to help in the war effort. It seemed that his running away had changed a few things, he could just hope not too many or else all his knowledge from the future would be pointless. After that Henry had been sorted into Gryffindor, big surprise, and the rest of the sorting went uninterrupted.

The next day he had almost missed receiving his class schedule due to his curse, fortunately it seemed that Professor Sprout cared enough for her students to be somewhat immune to the effects; she had noticed him barely on time, not much of an improvement, but still, an improvement. The following week would then go into his memory as one of the longest he had ever experienced.

As usual he was ignored by his peers and professors in most of his classes, which unfortunately were mostly about things he had already known for three years. So he was bored and had no one to talk to without falling into an awkward silence. This was made worse by the fact that no matter how better he was he was never acknowledged for it, no matter if he was the first to get a spell right, someone who got it half right a while after him got more praise than him, was a bit of recognition too much to ask for? So yeah, his days were long and tedious, he couldn't wait until the end of year came and he was finally free of that damn Horrocrux.

And now that he thought about it, ironically his favorite class had been the one given by the man who would hopefully kill him to set him free of the blasted soul piece in his head. Quirell was the only one who he ever got praise from. It was probably due to the fact that, being possessed by Voldemort himself, he was immune to the effect of Voldemort's Horrocrux.

In classes Quirell was perfectly able to notice him and how he managed everything in the first try without effort, and he was fair about giving him points, surely just part of his act to avoid suspicion. His housemates were by the end of the week calling him a Defense prodigy.

His housemates, well they were another good part of the year. He might not have been able to make friends among them; not many were able to focus on him more than a couple of minutes, but he managed to be known by everyone there. Only Hufflepuff students were able to notice him somewhat, not much but it was something, and thus they sometimes noticed that he was better than those being praised by the teachers. By the end of the second month into the term he was being asked by his fellow badgers about difficult topics of all subjects, and just before November started he had gained the rep of a 'king of all trades'. Said reputation never went further than his own house, and though it didn't gain him friends, it gave him respect form his peers.

November, there's another jewel, isn't it? The whole month was plagued with whispers about the happenings at the start of the month. That troll hadn't been that much of a deal, really. How could it be if two first years dealt with it using only a levitation charm? But of course no one knew what had really happened. Not even those involved in the whole affair.

.-._.-._.

Carlo sat at the Hufflepuff table during the feast. He knew what was going to happen today, his journals had mentioned it in passing since it was not that big of an event; not for him at least, Hermione Granger would undoubtedly never forget it.

But it didn't matter if it was a big event or not for him, it didn't matter how relevant it was for Henry and his group. None of that mattered for Carlo, all that mattered is that there was going to be a troll loose in the school today and he has been looking for a stress reliever for a while now, no one would miss that stinky troll so it was perfect. Alright, so he was more than a little bloodthirsty, but he had been practically raised by a group of killers and had a lot of pent up stress, can you blame him?

He had been raised as a warrior; he had no qualms about killing others. But there was no war right now and killing for no reason was something he would never do. His future self had been evil, but even he killed only when the target was interfering with his plans, Carlo was not there quite yet. He was taken out of his musing by the slamming of the main entrance of the hall, he smirked.

"TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS! Thought you ought to know"—said Quirell, just before 'fainting.'

The hall went into an uproar and Carlo took this moment to slip away among all the chaos. He heard Dumbledore silencing everyone and giving some orders, but his voice grew fainter as he got further away from the hall. As he ran he took out his version of the Marauders' map, given to him by himself, well…his future self, you know what I mean damn it!

He looked at the parchment, searching for the troll. He started from the second floor, where it had been the last time around, and found that it wasn't there just yet but was well on its way, perfect.

He managed to reach the troll just as it was about to enter the bathroom where Grager was. He took out his Erumpent dagger and threw it at the beast's feet. The explosion ensued upon impact wasn't strong enough to damage the thick skin of the troll, but it still caused pain and drove its attention to the boy who had caused it. The explosion had at the same time launched the dagger back at Carlo's general direction, so he was able to retrieve it.

The troll was utterly furious and has it ran towards Carlo, said boy took out his other dagger, turned it into its spear form and started running to the beast. As they neared each other, Carlo stabbed the spear on the floor and launched himself in the air towards the troll's torso, turning the spear into a sword as he did and slashing at the beasts hide, tearing it and drawing blood.

The beast roared in pain and smashed its club at Carlo, who, upon touching the floor, rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the attack and landing between its feet. He turned his weapon into a naginata-like blade and slashed both appendages. (1)

The troll again roared and fell to its knees; Carlo moved back to avoid being squashed. Once the beast was kneeling Carlo used his spear again to propel him and land on the troll's back and stabbing it with his sword. The troll arched his back, causing Carlo to fall, and slowly rose to its feet, while Carlo himself stood up. At this time is when Carlo faintly heard running steps coming from behind him, it seemed that Potter and Weasley were here.

Carlo decided to play it safe and let things play as they had the first time, lest thing change way too much for his convenience. The troll turned around to look for its enemy, only to see as he entered the bathroom. The beast, dumb as it was, followed Carlo into the bathroom just as Henry and Ron arrived to see its back disappear behind the door.

Carlo hid behind the entrance of the bathroom, effectively avoiding being noticed by the troll as it entered. He heard the door click as Henry and Ron closed it, unknowingly trapping Granger and Carlo inside; Carlo didn't mind, he could take care of himself, but as soon as Hermione got out of the stall she was in and saw the troll a shrill escaped her mouth. Carlo smirked as the attention of the troll was once again deviated, this time towards the frightened girl.

Not a moment later, Potter and Weasley entered the bathroom and using the levitation charm, knocked the beast out; which wouldn't have worked had it not been already weakened by its fight with Carlo earlier. This in turn made him wonder how they had done it the first time. Had it been weakened as well? Or was it just luck? He was taken out of his musing when the professors sent the three stooges to their dormitory in order for them to investigate the scene.

"They said it was knocked out"—drawled Severus Snape—"However this thing is dead"

"The troll seems to have been fighting before it was knocked out; someone else found it earlier and weakened it"—said McGonagall.

"Which in turn explains how an incompetent wizard like Potter, of all people, would be able to knock it out"—interrupted Snape.

"Whoever it was, is probably gravelly injured right now or even worse. By the injuries sustained by this beast I cannot think of other reason for it to be able to walk away, this thing killed or maimed whoever found it first"—continued McGonagall, completely dismissing Snape's comment, it's not as if it was not a common occurrence.

"We must then find this person, if it's a student we must act immediately. Call all the prefects and professors, we must do a search in the whole castle, and account for every student"—ordered Dumbledore, the other professors nodded and they got out of the bathroom. Carlo however noticed that Quirell looked at him quizzically before following them.

.-._.-._.

So, that's how the 'golden trio' was formed once again, no one knew of his role, and in this particular case, he didn't care. He had gotten rid of most of his stress and kept things from changing too much. And so November ended and December came with all its festive spirit.

Most of the student body would be going back home for the Holydays, very few would be staying, Carlo himself wasn't staying. Once vacations started he met with the shades at Kingscross Station.

.-._.-._.

"Welcome, young master"—greeted Arlecchino.

"Thanks, let's go to the apartment, we have a few things to discuss and we cannot risk being heard"—said Carlo, the shades nodded and they traveled back to the apartment where he had staid before he had to go to Hogwarts.

"So, what's it you want to dicuss?"—asked Horus.

"First of all I want a report of all you have achieved this past few months, and why you were not in the castle?"—asked the child, as Noro went on to hunt some bugs for his meal.

"The wards of Hogwarts wouldn't let us come in, master"—said Pedrolino—"We have been trying to find a way in"

"I suspected as much, I guess you failed, seeing how you never made it into the castle, no matter, I have a way around the wards, but that will come later. So tell me, what did you do when you couldn't gain access to the castle?"

"Well, we retrieved the Horrocrux that was within our reach, the ring is inside this box right here"—he took out the aforementioned box and put on the table—"We have also been investigating as much as we could about known Death Eaters and Order Members, both those who are already or are going to be, Mezzetino and Pulcinella took care of that"—said shades then conjured a stack of papers, which he assumed were the reports of their findings.

"Anything about the other Horrocruxes?"—Carlo asked.

"Well, we can't get the locket until we either gain access to Sirius Black or that crazy elf Kreatcher, the diadem is inside the castle, and well, you were closer to it than us"—said Brighella—"The others are completely out of our reach, well the cup will not be for long"

"The diary will be within my reach next year, so that's of no consequence, the snake will be a problem for a long while too. Explain, how do you plan on getting the cup?"

"Well master, with the Lestranges being either dead or in prison, there is no one to manage their state. They are almost bankrupted by now, most of their businesses have fallen and only their individual vaults remain, we think we will be able to buy their debts and acquire their possessions, the cup among them, however, after consulting this with the goblins, we will not be able to do so for a couple of years yet, we still don't have that much money to buy their debts"—said Pedrolino

"We could shorten that time by gaining the stone, which is available to you"—commented Horus

"Yes well, I'm not that interested in the stone right now"—he said and took out his trunk before entering it, it took a minute before he was out again, this time with a shrunk cabinet which he expanded in the middle of the room—"here's what we're going to do. Horus, you will go to Knockturn Alley and raid Borgin and Burkes. That shop was the cause of many problems in the future. Acquire everything you deem important enough, your priority is a cabinet identical to this one"

"I see, so this was the way around the war you were talking about"—commented Horus—"But raiding the shop will not take me longer than a day, what do you expect me to do for the rest of the month?"

"Well, this cabinet right here, is broken. You will expend most of the month repairing it, if a sixth year kid was able to do it in a year I don't see why a shade wouldn't be able to do it in a month, have it ready before classes resume, otherwise I won't be able to introduce it in the castle"

"Sigh, it will probably take less than that, but alright, I guess it beats doing nothing for a whole month"

"Right, next, Arlecchino and Pedrolino, you will research which is the fasted breed of dragon and hunt down an specimen, it doesn't matter if it's male or female, but bring it alive to Skomer Island and prepare it to become our seventh shade"—this perked everyone's attention.

"Hmp, you plan to make a shade? Sorry to say this kid, but if you do it you will die, you don't have the kind of power necessary to create a shade and survive"—said Horus mockingly.

"Whoever said I was doing it? I know my current limitation Horus, I'm not that arrogant to think I can do this, you on the other hand will, the six of you will create the first shade of our future army"—said Carlo—"A war is going to happen, sooner or later, and the light is too weak, both military and mentally, to fight it and I don't plan on joining the dark, so we will fight from our own front, so we will start amassing our army from this moment, this shade is only the first step"´

"I see, but why a dragon? And why Skomer Island?"—asked Arlecchino.

"Dragon hide is very resistant to magic, so a shade made from a dragon will make a good juggernaut, I want it to be fast too, which is why I'm tasking you with hunting the fastest dragon you find. As for the island, that's the first uninhabited island that came to mind, if you know of a better option then put forth your suggestion"—everyone looked at Pedrolino, who knew the most about such things, he just shrugged.

"That island is more than big enough to perform the ritual, and it's close too. Most uninhabited islands are too small"

"Right, well, Mezzetino, Brighella and Pulcinella will come with me to the colonies, we will hunt down another creature"—said Carlo

"Will this one be a shade as well?"—asked Horus with disdain.

"No, this one will help make a name for myself, like a phoenix is a symbol of a light wizard; most wizards in this society respect Dumbly just because of his phoenix. The creature we will hunt however is a symbol of raw power, something both light and dark will respect"

"You want to hunt down a Thunderbird?"—asked Mezzetino, after all he knew the most about creatures, magical or not, it was easy for him to deduce what they would be looking for—"that will be a challenge"

"That's exactly why I'm going with you, I could be going with Arlecchino and Pedrolino, their hunt promises to be just as interesting, but hunting a Thunderbird ought to be less dangerous than a dragon, and I don't plan on staying with Mr. Smiles here"—said Carlo, pointing at Horus at the last part—"but enough is enough, everyone has their tasks, get on with it"

.-._.-._.

Carlo smiled while remembering the hunt for the mystical bird. They hadn't managed to get it unfortunately, they only had one month after all, which though it sounded like a lot of time to hunt down one ruddy bird, wasn't enough; Thunderbirds are tricky. Still, it was fun, though Noro had caused more than a few problems with the natives.

"_The little guy is a handfull"_—Carlo thought as he scratched the head of the lemur sleeping besides him in the train compartment.

By the end of the month they had gone back to England and traveled to Skomer island for the birth of the first shade of his army. The ritual was, to say the least, overwhelming in its impressiveness. Even as far as he was from the site, to prevent the summoned souls from trying to get in his body, he could still feel the power it invoked.

But everything had gone well and by the end of it the dragon's body had changed to a more humanoid form. The new shade had been a female, taller than the other shades, still shorter than Arlecchino. She had a feral appearance and her eyes were surrounded by small dark blue scales that gave credit to her original form, she had short untamed red hair and pale skin, just like any other shade.

At first she had tried to attack everyone present, but the other shades restrained her. _Finna alfrinns namar ilumëosja, _those were the word Carlo had said and immediately after that he got her true by magic given name. _Eldaiedail,_ a fitting name. Though they had named her Segene.

She, like Horus, hated the fact she was now bound to his will, but such thing wasn't unexpected. She would come around, just like Horus did; even if he insisted that he still hated it, it was obvious to everyone else that he wasn't as abrasive as before.

With that done, and the cabinet repaired, Carlo had gone back to Hogwarts for the second half of his first year. However, thing made an unexpected turn upon his return. As soon as classes started Quirell had deemed it necessary to talk to him.

.-._.-._.

"m…m…Mr. Corvino…pl…please stay for a mo…moment"—came Quirell's voice as he dismissed the other students. Carlo was surprised by this turn of events but didn't show it, he just nodded and waited for everyone to leave.

"Sigh. Mr. Corvino, I think we should talk"—said the professor.

"You didn't stutter professor"—Carlo pointed out faking surprise.

"Yes well, it's just that big crowds make me nervous. I can help but be frightened when there are a lot of people, all I see is a bunch of bloodsuckers waiting to sinck their fangs and…"—here he gave a shuddering sigh—"…never mind that. Mr. Corvino, it's come to mine and the other professors' attention that you seem to be holding back in classes. I thought your head of house would confront you on this, but it's been a week and no one has done anything, so I believe I should do what others have failed to do. If you could please tell me what the problem seems to be? Why are you holding back?"

"Excuse me, professor. How or why did the staff figure that I was holding back?"—asked the child, he was relieved this had nothing to do with Voldemort and was more of an act to keep the façade of a good teacher.

"Well, at the end of every term the staff is required to give reports of the entire alumnus to the headmaster. During last term's meeting it was brought to our attention that while you seem perfectly capable of understanding the material and performing the magic masterfully, you don't."—said the possessed teacher-"After the headmaster reviewed some of the classes through use of a magical artifact called pensive, he determined that you always performed the best in each class but never said anything about it and remained out of the way. You Mr. Corvino could be a very recognized wizard, but you seem to avoid attention at all cost…"—he would have continued, but the fact that Carlo had started to laugh made him stop—"What's so funny Mr. Corvino?"

"Sorry professor, let me ask you something"—Carlo started after stoping laughing—"Did you watch the memories as well?"

"Hmm, no, but I doubt the headmaster has any reason to lie about one student is better than other"

"Well yes, he has no reason to advocate for me, but had you seen the memories you would have noticed something quite interesting. It's not that I don't want to be noticed, but rather that I can't be noticed"

"What do you mean, Mr. Corvino?"

"Just that professor, I cannot be noticed, I have a curse, and have had it for a while. I don't know its name, or who cast it"—he lied—"All I know are its effects, I don't know if whoever casted it did so for my protection or to harm me, whatever the case it doesn't matter. The curse makes it so those who don't wish me well, will not be able to notice me; even if I'm in front of them preventing them from watching the most interesting quidditch game ever played. Those who know me and don't wish me the best won't notice me, and how many people do you know that will wish the best for someone they have never met? Being in Hufflepuff has been a blessing for me, that house is full of people who wish good to their peers. I haven't been able to make friends since no one is able to focus on me for long, but they seem to be able to notice me enough to make things better already. Trust me professor, there's nothing I would wish more than get recognized, but it's impossible for me right now"—Carlo got a wistful look on his eyes—"You do remember the sorting, right? How no one noticed I was already at the stool until I said so, I was right besides professor McGonagall and she didn't see me, that's how my life has been for as long as I can remember"

"That's hard for me to believe Mr. Corvino"—said Quirell—"how do you explain that I can perfectly notice you? I'm not saying I wish you any harm, but I doubt that the other professors don't wish you any better than I"—shit, he hadn't thought on that, well, let's see how good he was thinking on his toes.

"I don't know, maybe you do wish me better than the other professors, or maybe you're just as powerful as the one who casted the curse, if not more. As I said, I know nothing of this curse other than the effects it has on me"—of course all of this, he had taken out of his sleeve; it didn't matter how powerful you were.

"Hmm, interesting point. However that would mean that the Headmaster should be able to see you too, yet he had the same problem as everyone else during the sorting"

"Dumbledore might be more powerful than you in terms of magic professor. But he is not exactly a well-wisher. He sees everyone as pieces of chess, and the magical world as his game board. He is willing to sacrifice any piece in his hands for his own agenda; you can hardly call that looking out for other's best interests"—Carlo said, and noticed the smirk that spread on Quirells face.

"It's hard to find people like you nowadays, Mr. Corvino. Most people refuse to think for themselves and see what's in front of them; they prefer to let others do what they should be doing. But this meeting is not for that. So now that we have concluded this is not your doing, but rather the effects of a curse, maybe the best course of action would be to think on how to get rid of it"

"Hm, impossible, the only way I can get rid of this curse is dying by the killing curse, the curse that ails me is imbued into my soul. So for me to get rid of it, my soul must be unstable, only the Killing Curse can do that, if I die by other means…well, you will never see a headstone with my name on it. Good day professor"—and with that Carlo left the classroom, leaving behind a thoughtful Quirell and Voldemort.

.-._.-._.

And so, things went back to normal for Carlo, except that now Quirell seemed to treat him with more sympathy than before. Well, Voldemort was obsessed with living forever and being known as the greatest wizard to ever live, the thought of being forever unnoticed and having to die in order to get someone to see him probably made him see Carlo as a pitiful creature, he probably was thinking on freeing him later on by killing him, let it be known that Lord Voldemort is compassionated enough to free people from their suffering, yeah right.

And so, the day finally came for Carlo to confront the real Quirell. He had taken his own invisibility cloak from his trunk and followed the golden trio across the set of kindergarten traps protecting the stone. Dumbly really wanted this to be easy for them it seemed.

.-._.-._.

Carlo followed Henry as he entered the last of many chambers while Granger went back to see to their Weasley friend. Carlo didn't need to drink from the potion in the flask, he had come prepared with his own, knowing what lies ahead surely is a huge advantage. As soon as he entered the chamber and Henry saw Quirell, Carlo casted a stunner at his former brother and took off the cloak, surprising Quirell.

"Mr. Corvino, how unexpected to meet you here, Potter is not that big of a surprise, but you certainly are."—commented Quirell—"what are you doing here, Mr. Corvino?"

"I came here, to be freed from my curse by the same man who put it on me"—said Carlo stoically.

"I don't know what you…"

"I know what you're here for Quirell! And I know that we are not alone here"

"Incarcero!"—shouted Quirell and a rope flew at Carlo. He didn't even bother to dodge—"you would do well in not interrupting me Mr. Corvino, I have a tight schedule as it is, I might free you from your curse after I'm finished"—he then turned around—"now, how do I get the stone? I see myself offering it to my master, but where is it? Help me master"

"Use the boy!"—came Voldemort's eerie and incorporeal voice.

"Corvino, come here!"—ordered Quirell turning around, but Carlo wasn't there anymore—"where?"—that was all he got to say before having to shield himself from the incoming debris.

"I didn't come here today for you Quirell, I came for the bastard possessing you!"—came Carlos voice from within the dust cloud lifted by the debris.

"The boy knows too much! Kill him!"—Voldemort's voice once again ordered.

"Yes master"

"Vindr eitha!"—was all Quirell got to hear before his lungs were crying for air.

"Ma…mast"—Quirell suddenly was thrown backwards by a piece of wall impacting him. He broke a few ribs for sure, but was able to breathe again.

"Kill him! Kill him now!"—ordered Voldemort.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"—shouted Quirell and the green light flew towards Carlo, who didn't move one inch.

The spell impacted and Carlo fell, a smirk of triumph adorning his face.

"It's done master"—said Quirell between pantings.

"A shame, the kid was promising, well, he is out of his misery now. Now Quirell, get me that stone"

And while Quirell continued his attempts at getting the stone, Carlo was waking up in a clearing he had never been to. Everything was too bizarre to be real, the trees surrounding the clearing had blue trunks, and the leaves, just as the grass below him, were white. There was a river in front of him, the water was purple though. Carlo wondered if this was the beyond or just a representation made up by his subconscious. He heard someone cry and turned around, he saw nothing. He stood up and walked towards a tree, just behind it he found what had to be the ugliest baby he would ever see.

"Pitiful, isn't it?"—asked someone to his right, he turned and saw a man with a glass mask covering his face, he didn't need to ask in order to know this was his future self, so this was in fact just a representation made by his mind—"This thing, this parasite, is what caused us so much pain, it doesn't deserve any mercy"

"I take it then that this means I achieved what I wanted? I got rid of it?"—asked Carlo.

"You tell me. This is not my mind, I'm only a physical representation of your subconscious, I know what you know"

"I see, and how do I return?"

"I know what you know"—the man repeated.

"Such an useful subconscious I have"

"Never said I was"—Carlo just smirked and closed his eyes. Behind him he heard something disturbing the water of the river and when he turned around a boat was waiting for him.

"I guess we will get to see if I chose right"

"I suppose, do have a good life"—his subconscious said and Carlo boarded the boat.

"Wake Potter! Use him to get the stone!"—was the first thing Carlo heard upon returning to the conscious world.

Quirell quickly followed his master's command and enervated Henry and ordered him to see in the mirror.

"I see myself…holding the Quidditch cup"—Henry said frightfully.

"Tch, useless boy"—Quirell then pushed him away.

"He lies!"—Voldemort said.

"Potter! Come here!"

"Let me talk to him!"

"Master, you're not strong enough…"

"I'm strong enough for this!"—then Quirell started to take off his turban, when he finished he turned around—"Henry Potter"—Voldemort said, eliciting a gasp from Henry—"see what you have turned me into. Now Potter, give me the stone"

"M…master?"—stuttered Quirell.

"What do you want Quirell?"—asked and impassive dark lord.

"It's Corvino, he…he isn't where he was!"

"What?"—he made Quirell turn around to see for himself, effectively Carlo had moved from his spot—"impossible!"

"Just as someone said to me once"—came Carlos voice from behind the mirror just before turning around it and beheading Quirell with his sword—"impossibility can go to hell"

"NOOOO!"—roared Voldemort as his spirit left Quirell's head, he then launched itself at Carlo, intent on possessing him.

"Waíse eithai!"—Carlo shouted, Voldemort then found himself being thrown forceful away from the castle.

"Wha…"—Henry started, but he was too shocked to finish.

"Moi!"—said Carlo pointing his dagger at Henry, who then got a glassed look. Carlo then took his cloak and put it on before taking the stone from Henry's pocket and leaving, just in time too, as Dumbly was just arriving.

.-._.-._.

Henry wasn't able to remember what had actually transpired after he was enervated. All Dumbledore was able to get out of him was that he had reached the last room and was hit by a stunner from behind him, then after waking up he only saw Quirells beheaded corpse and the shock had made him speechless. Dumbledore wasn't happy, even less when he found the stone gone.

After that the rumor mill went crazy with different versions of Quirell's death, some more gruesome than others, though curiously, none implied beheading. But that didn't matter anymore to Carlo, he had finally gotten rid of his curse; just in time for finals! Carlo was able to impress the professors during the last two weeks of school and aced all his exams; he was getting more praise in one week that he had gotten in all his life. Carlo couldn't help but feel smug about all this.

It was quite funny to see Granger and the Ravenclaws outraged and being bested by a Hufflepuff. Carlo Corvino finished his first year at Hogwarts as the top student of his generation. Carlo had no intention of giving that seat to anyone for a long time. Unfortunately the cursed wasn't lifted in time to allow him to make any friends, but next year promised to be way better.

The train finally arrived to King's Cross and Carlo got out and headed towards the, now seven, shades waiting for him. He was interrupted however.

"Harry?"—called a voice behind him, Carlo's eyes widened, but he hid behind his Occlumency and turned around to see no other than Lily Potter—"Oh! Sorry, I thought you were…never mind, I mistaked you for someone else, sorry"

"No problem ma'am"—said Carlo with a smile, happy that his cover wasn't blown, he turned around just as Henry reached his mother.

"Mom? What were you doing talking to that guy?"—asked Henry.

"Nothing sweetie, do you know him?"

"Well, I haven't talked to him, he is Carlo Corvino, top student of our generation, quite a surprise too, since he is in Hufflepuff and all"—said Henry nonchalantly.

"A Hufflepuff is top of the year? Well, now there's quite a surprise!"—said James

"James, I clearly remember a certain Gryffindor who made top of the class"—chided Lily—"Henry, maybe you should ask him to help you next year, I saw your grades and though they are not too bad, I know you can do better than that, especially in potions"—Henry just groaned.

.-._.-._.

Carlo tuned out the rest of their conversation, he couldn't help but eavesdrop at first but decided to stop. He walked towards the group of shades, which were gathering quite a lot of stares, even more so when they bowed to Carlo. Many purebloods were surprised by this and made mental notes to find out about him. They wouldn't find anything of course, but Carlo was satisfied with leaving such an impression on them.

"So, what will we be doing this summer?"—asked Brighella.

"Have you forgotten?"—asked Carlo—"We still have a Thunderbird to catch"—Those who had gone hunting with him groaned, seriously, the damn ruddy bird was just too problematic.

.-._.-._.

**(1)A Naginata, for those who don't know, is an Asiatic weapon that resembles an halberd but has a longer blade, like a **_**Tanto**_** sword. In this case I say Naginata-like, because Naginatas have a curved blade, this has an straight blade instead.**

_**Finna alfrinns namar ilumëosja=find her true name**_

_**Eldaiedail=great morning star**_

_**Vindr, eitha!=air, leave!**_

_**Moi=change**_

_**Waíse eithai=be gone**_

**Segene is a German female name that means victorious.**

**Hope you like, as promised, this chapter is longer than usual, next chapter will be a summary of summer and second year, probably third year too since I don't intend for much to happen during that specific year and writing a chapter for it would be ridiculous, but it all depends on my mood.**

**Please R&R.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I wanted to update my other story, Shinobi Bender, but I finished this chapter first. What can I say? When inspiration strikes you have to use it or else it will leave and don't come back for a long time.**

Ch. 8: Summer.

James Potter felt his heart make a jump as soon as he read Gringotts' letter, which he got a week after the summer break started. He as head of house Potter received a statement about every movement done by any member of the family during the last month. So when he read that his son's vault, as in Harry's vault, had been emptied once again he could do nothing else but stare at the parchment, reading it over and over, trying to see if this was a lie. His son, Harry, was back, he was back in England, he was within their reach. They had an opportunity to find him!

But what was he doing sitting there in his house? His son was in England! He had to find him! He abruptly stood up, startling Lily and Henry, as they were having breakfast, and rushed to the fireplace; leaving the bank's statement on the table. Lily took the parchment to see what had her husband so agitated. As soon as she noticed the statement about Harry's vault she stood up and followed her James. Henry wanting to find out what the fuss was about followed them without reading the letter; he wouldn't understand it anyway so why bother?

.-._.-._.

1 week prior.

Carlo smirked as he and his shades waited for the plane to take off. He had decided to stir the magical world up a bit before leaving, so he had emptied his trust vault and used the money to fund his journey to the States. The Potters would surely be receiving the statement from Gringotts one week later, at the end of the month, so he wasn't in danger of being found out.(1)

His thoughts travelled back to his plans for this summer. He hoped that the hunt for the Thunderbird went better this time, he now had with him all seven shades after all, and that ought to count for something. The plane finally took off and he decided to sleep, since the flight would take approximately 7 hours and all.

.-._.-._.

Diagon Alley. 8 weeks later. (Sorry for the time skip)

Many witches and wizards were scrambling in the alley to finish their shopping as fast as possible and return home. Why? Simple, the skies had become heavily clouded and the lightning signaled that a storm was coming, and by the looks of it, this wasn't a small one.

In the middle of all this rush hour, lightning struck from the skies in the middle of the alley, scaring the shit out of all the patrons. Once the light allowed it everyone present saw a boy standing right where the lightning had struck accompanied by an electric blue bird and a lemur clinging to his left shoulder; quite the sight.

The bird settled on his right shoulder and, once it stopped flapping its wings, the skies settled as well; this last detail didn't go unnoticed by many and, given that these people weren't strangers to magic, they immediately concluded that the storm was caused by the bird. Once they reached this conclusion it was easy to determine what kind of bird it was, and they saw the child in a new light just because he owned such a creature.

It wasn't long before seven specks of black smoke descended from the cloudy sky and surrounded him, reforming in six men and one woman. The purebloods that were at King's Cross station 8 weeks ago recognized these people and then remembered who the child was, and what they had found out about him. That is to say absolutely nothing, all they knew was his name.

Many purebloods had dismissed the child as soon as they couldn't find anything else about him, but now that he appeared to have gained one of the most powerful magical creatures on earth most of them decided to keep an eye on him; it seemed he would become a force to be reckoned.

Carlo, for his part, surveyed the alley and internally smirked at the reactions gotten from his entrance.

"Alright"—he barked to the shades—"you know what to do, Horus investigate what happened during our absence, the rest get my stuff for school, I will be waiting at Fortescue's"—the shades bowed silently and left to complete their tasks, just as Carlo told them to act beforehand; he wanted to leave an impression on everyone present. People could only stare in shock that a mere child held such authority over seven shades, beings known to all as really powerful and dangerous creatures.

Carlo just ignored it as if it was a common occurrence and headed for the ice cream shop. Florean, the owner of the establishment, could only stare at him. It wasn't until Carlo made him snap out of his stupor that he was able to get his ice cream. He then sat at one of the tables and watched the people in the alley were still in shock, he raised an eyebrow at them nonchalantly and people started to scatter. Many passed by the shop several times, throwing glances at him. Seriously, could this people be any more obvious?

"Mr. Corvino, I presume?"—drawled a voice besides him. Carlo was taken aback by this approach, but didn't show it. He turned to see who spoke to him and smirked.

"Duke, actually"—his smirk grew more pronounced as he noticed the surprise on his interlocutor's face—"There is no need for you to introduce yourself, Lord Malfoy, you're very well known"

"I wish I could say the same, _Duke…_"

"Carlo Tommas Corvino, Duke of Tuscany at your service. I'm not too surprised that my name isn't as known as yours here in England. My family hails from Italy, and I'm the first to step on foreign land in several decades"—Carlo said as he thought about how lucky he was for not having to back his claims. It was just his luck that his shades had decided, four years ago, to coincidentally give him a name with so much hold in Italy.

As it turns out that in fact there was once a Corvino family in that country. Descendants of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. Matthias had, during his last years of life moved with his family to Vienna, where he died. His grandchildren had moved to Italy a while after, where their family's name was changed to Corvino. (2)

A few generations later, Carlo wasn't sure how many, the head of the family, a mere lord at the time, was married to the youngest daughter of the current regent, thus gaining the title of Duke of Tuscany. That family however perished five decades ago and there is not a single member alive nowadays.

That is until the goblins contacted him three and a half weeks ago and told him of this opportunity presented to him. He might not be a Corvino by blood, but he had magically taken the name, although ignorant of its political pull when he took it, and thus he was able to claim the title; unfortunately the same didn't apply to their wealth, since whatever riches they had were under blood protections, otherwise he could have taken all of it. He was content with what he got however, now he didn't have to create a background for himself and could use their name to push his agenda. Though he still had no political ambitions, in the future he could, and having such a background would make it easier for him. No one would be bothered by him using it; after all there remained no one to challenge his claim.

"I see"—drawled Lucius, taking Carlo out of his musing—"that explains why so little is known about you, however that brings the question, why did you _step on foreign land_? I assume you had quite the life in Italy, why leave all of it?"

"Adventure of course, Lord Malfoy. The unknown called to me, so to say. From a young age I always wanted to know what existed beyond what my family knew, and so from a young age I took to traveling along with my guards, who I assume you've seen in the alley. I have seen so many places, and there is still so much more to see."—he said wistfully—"It's unfortunate that I'm the last of my family, but with that came the freedom to roam the world as I pleased."—he had become a good actor, he was pulling the perfect pureblood façade masterfully, if he said so himself.

"That indeed sounds like a good way to live your life, Your Grace"—Oh, how this must be hurting Lucius' pride—"but what about your education? Why are you attending Hogwarts instead of Rome's sorcery guild?"(3)

"I would have gone back to Italy for my magical education, but at the time I was in Bergen, so Hogwarts' letter arrived before Rome's. I had already done so many things differently from my family, so why not apply the same to my education? And so I decided to attend Hogwarts instead"

"Well, allow me to be the first to wish you a pleasant stay in our country, I hope our educational system is to your liking"—said Lucius bowing to the child as was expected of someone of his station talking to someone of higher standing, yeah, this was a huge blow to his pride—"now, I believe I have taken quite a bit of your precious time, I shall take my leave. Have a good day Your Grace."

"Same to you, Lord Malfoy"—said Carlo inclining his head in acknowledgment. By now, people who saw the exchange were openly gaping at him. Lord Malfoy bowing to a child, can you believe that?

Not long after Lucius departure his shades returned with their tasks complete. Carlo was more than satisfied; he had accomplished more than he had planned for today. Originally he planned on just making an appearance and leave an impression on the population, however Lucius' approach, though unexpected, wasn't unwelcomed.

Malfoy would take care of spreading the word in order to find out how true his claims were, and with the goblins' backing him in this, he was sure that the pureblood families would want to ally themselves to him, effectively spreading his influence within the ministry. Today had been a good day.

"Let's go; we are finished here"—Carlo said. Horus in turn snorted.

"Done inflating your head already?"—eh asked condescendingly.

"You know perfectly well that this was not for my ego Horus, but for my goals. I might not have anything planned for the ministry right now, however that doesn't mean I won't in the future. I need to start building up my influence as soon as possible. The more power I hold by the time I reveal myself, the sweetest my revenge will be. I will be great, politically and magically, and I want them to know I achieved that without them. They shall grovel to me, asking forgiveness, and I shall deny them just as they denied me the love I deserved"

"Tch, conceited brat"—muttered Segene, however she shut up when she received Carlo's glare.

"Let's go already"—was all he said.

.-._.-._.

2 Days later (5 days before second year starts)

"So Mr. Corvino is a duke and Lucius is already ahead in the race to get on his good side"—said Dumbledore after Severus finished telling him what he learnt from Lucius.

"I still don't get why he bothers; it's not like he is a duke from Britain"—commented the potions professor.

"He might not be a duke of our land, however Voldemort killed all the remaining magical dukes, along with any noble of higher standing than the lords, and thus there has not been a duke in the Wizengamot for just as long"

"So?"

"Severus"—Dumbledore said patronizingly—"dukes had quite a pull in the Wizengamot, their word was practically law. No doubt that now that this is in the open, many political factions will move for Mr. Corvino to be accepted as part of the Wizengamot, provided that Mr. Corvino backs them up of course; I can almost feel the political mess this will cause. All sides will try to get Mr. Corvino to support them and to get that they will do almost anything"

"And us?"

"We, fortunately, have the field advantage, since Mr. Corvino will be here most of the following six years. We must sway Mr. Corvino to our cause. If the Wizengamot approves, and I'm almost sure they will, then having him on our side will be a huge advantage when Voldemort returns."

"Well, I suppose that if what you're telling is true then it would be prudent to act accordingly, no doubt the purists are convincing their children to try and befriend Mr. Corvino"—commented Severus.

"And we shall act accordingly, what do you know about Mr. Corvino?"—asked the headmaster.

"Not much actually, and all the other teachers will tell you the same. Mr. Corvino remained out of the way most of the year, attracting no attention at all to himself until the end of term, when he rose to be the top student of his generation."—summarized the head of Slytherin—"I believe you remember the meeting of winter break last year, you told us that he was able to master every spell on the first try, and I admit that his potions are perfect most, if not all of the time. I believe that he purposefully avoided attention the whole year in order to observe and study his peers, what for? I don't know, but that's quite Slytherin, even more so coming from a Hufflepuff"

"And Lucius? What did he tell you?"

"Lucius, well, he believes that child will be your undoing"—Dumbledore tuned around quite abruptly.

"What do you mean?"

"The child is powerful, of that there is no doubt"

"I would say not, he has shades as servants, he obviously has to have some power to achieve that. However I fail to see how that convinced Lucius that Mr. Corvino could be my fall"

"It's no longer the shades only. He made an appearance hi Diagon two days ago; Mr. Corvino has a new familiar it seems. A creature rarer than a phoenix, a symbol of power. Neither light nor dark, but raw untamed power. It seems Mr. Corvino is the first wizard ever recorded to have bonded with a thunderbird"—the room went eerily silent. Then Dumbledore went to sit behind his desk, a calculative look on his face.

"We must sway Mr. Corvino to our cause, make him remain neutral at the very least. If he were to side with the dark, I don't want to think about it. We must also prevent him from interacting too much with Henry, at least until we are sure he is on our side. We shall only observe him for now; we will make our move when we know more about his persona"

"What would you have me do about the Death Eather's children?"

"I don't know, I would prefer you preventing them from influencing our young duke, but that would jeopardize your position among their ranks, and I will need you there in the future."—commented the old wizard—"the problem here is that we know nothing about the child at all, we only have his profile, that if of no use when trying to influence him. We must learn more first, for now don't interfere"—Snape nodded and turned to leave—"Severus"—Snape turned around, his hand touching the knob of the door—"keep him and Henry away from each other"—the professor snarled, but nodded nonetheless

.-._.-._.

September 1st , King's Cross Station.

Once again Carlo sat in a compartment of the Hogwart's express, the train was about to leave and most children were already on board. He took a sick pleasure in seeing how his former parents looked around in case their lost child appeared, he couldn't keep the smirk from his face when he saw them. He was interrupted, however, when the door of his compartment opened and in entered a blond boy of his age without even asking. Carlo raised an eyebrow and the child, who turned around and tried and failed to achieve a look of importance.

"You're Carlo Corvino?"—he asked, Carlo amused decided not to answer, this in turn made Draco angry—"Don't you ignore me Corvino, do you know who I am? I'm Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, you should be grateful that someone of my standing is talking to you, I don't get why my father would want me to talk to you."—he was interrupted however by Carlos chuckles.

"It seems, Draco, that you're not really that smart"—Carlo said condescendingly—"Why indeed would you father want you to talk or befriend me? You clearly failed to grasp that. Didn't it occur to you that it might be because I hold a position of power? My Draco, what will your father say, once he learns that his son botched his chance at befriending a Duke due to his arrogance and clear lack of brains?"—Draco paled drastically at hearing that while Carlo stood up—"I will be seeing you at school Malfoy"—and with that Carlo left to look for another compartment, leaving Draco behind. Of course he had no plans of siding with any of the people trying to gain his favor, but he wasn't about to tell Draco that. Oh, Lucius would definitely hear of this, if nothing else just so that he could have some fun at Draco's expenses.

Carlo found another compartment, however this wasn't empty. A girl was there already, but she was reading, and seemed to be oblivious to the world.

"Do you mind sharing? I don't really want to waste any more time looking for an empty compartment, especially when they are probably all occupied by now, this is the closest to empty I have found"—the girl in question didn't even look at him when she answered.

"As long as you don't bother me, I would like to finish this book before we arrive"

"That's fine, as long as you don't bother me either"—Carlo said as he sat and took out a book from his unshrunken trunk and started reading as well. This was when the train finally started to move

.-._.-._.

**(1)****Classes start September the 1****st****, and they are given 9 weeks of summer break, so the end of term is around June 24****th****, approximately one week before the month ends.**

**(2)****Up to the part of him having a family everything is fact, Matthias Corvinus **_**the Just **_**a****ctually existed and was Duke of Austria and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and died in Vienna in 1490. If he had family or not I don't know.**

**(3)****In Italy, Dukes were called 'Highness' since that was the highest title attainable there as far as I know; I ****might be wrong, while in England they are called 'Your Grace' and are, I believe, the fourth highest status attainable, Lord being the lowest actually, just above commoners.**

**Alright, so I ended up using one of the most overused clichés ever and gave Harry a noble status higher than other purebloods. That wasn't planned but I just couldn't resist. Besides, it rolls so smoothly with historical facts that I feel it is perfectly justified.**

**As you probably noticed as well, Harry is turning darker and sly. This was absolutely planned from the beginning, however I'm still not sure whether to leave him like that or make him become evil. Not for being a Hufflepuff will he lose his other traits. In this story, as in the books, the hat said that Harry had characteristics from all houses, but unlike Rowling I plan on Harry keeping and developing these traits instead of suppressing them like he did in canon, which is what happened in my opinion.**

**Also, some people asked me, back when I started this story, if I had an image of how Harry's dagger looks when in its other forms. At the time I didn't have an image, and I'm not a good drawer. However I'm somewhat good at creating 3D models, so I did that instead. You can find and image in my profile of Harry's weapons. You can't appreciate it in the image, but they are all 3D models. =)**

**I was planning to include second year in this chapter too, but this is already too long so I will be doing that for next chapter.**

**R&R!**


	10. Chapter 10

**It's come to my attention that a lot of the faves and subscriptions this story is getting are from people who like slash and have only slash in their favorites **(I check the profiles of every person who faves or subscribes to my stories in order to find more stories to read myself). **So** **I'm telling you right now, the pairing of this story (and all my stories) will most definitely be heterosexual, and I mean all the pairings; I wouldn't be**** able to write slash if I wanted, which I don't.**

**.-._.-._.**

From the moment Carlo got off the train, he was able to tell the difference between this and the previous year. When he had met Malfoy at the station, he wasn't wearing his uniform, so the blond ponce wasn't able to tell his status, despite all other clues. But now that he was wearing his Basilisk and Dragon school robes, trousers and boots, along with his Acromantula silk shirt, many of the purebloods had to strain themselves to prevent staring at his top quality clothes. He of course ignored it all as if it was an everyday thing and walked to the carriages that would take them to the castle. The girl he had been sharing a compartment with, had left already with a group of female Ravenclaws, Carlo didn't even know her name and it wasn't as if it mattered to him at all.

Once inside the great hall he noticed the 'furtive' glances he was receiving from most, if not all, of the purebloods; most of these glances came from the snake's pit. Many of his house mates tried to start a conversation with him, but they had a hard time doing so. Mainly because of the awkwardness of having, for the most part, ignored their house mate for a whole year thing. Of course that was not their fault and Carlo had to give it to them that they were able to notice him most of the time even while he still had the horocrux inside his scar. Other reason was because of Carlo's façade of a noble pureblood, which he had to keep if he wanted to gain some pull within the high circles of society; he wasn't acting all high and mighty like Malfoy did though.

As the sorting started, Carlo saw his former brother sitting in the Gryffindor table with quite a subdued demeanor. According to his future self's journals, Henry had been kept out of the station by Malfoy's house elf. But that was because he had gone to the station with the Weasleys since his parents were conducting their own search for their lost son, seeing how the government refused to waste any more resources in a lost cause and all, and had left Henry with the red headed bunch. However, when Carlo emptied his trust vault at the beginning of the summer break, he had changed these events.

The Potters still carried on with their search, but they were now under the belief that their son was within the country, so they kept their efforts inside England, allowing for them to take better care of Henry, than they would if they had expanded their efforts internationally. Thus, Henry was able to stay with his parents and go to the station with them via apparition, bypassing Dobby's barrier; something that was impossible with the Weasleys as they were too many. Carlo was pulled out of his musing by Dumbledore's speech, and shortly after they were sent to bed.

Even from day one, Carlo noticed how the teachers were more focused on him now, purposefully keeping him within their sight at all times, as if they didn't want to miss anything he did. This lead to quite a big stir during the first week given the peculiarity of his wand; many teachers were alarmed at seeing a student carry a dagger in their class. Quite a silly fear if you think about how every other student has a potentially lethal weapon that can be more dangerous than a simple dagger. Fortunately, by the end of the first week every teacher was aware of the nature of his wand and the problem was solved, thought there was still some uneasiness.

As time went on, he was approached by several members of different houses for several reasons. Other than his own housemates, he was usually approached by Ravenclaws, who asked for his help with several subjects, or Slytherins, who tried to get on his good side, although they never got Carlo to actually side with any of them.

Gryffindors, for the most part, had no reason to approach him at all, other than Granger who was actually jealous of his academic prowess and more often than not muttered snide remarks about him for taking what she perceived to be her spot as the top student. And Henry, who as per his mother's prodding, asked Carlo for his help to get better scores; he remained average at best as it was. Carlo had wanted to refuse him, but this was an opportunity to eventually get inside Black's property and get access to Voldemort's locket, thus he found himself tutoring his former brother.

When Dumbledore learnt of the situation he wasn't pleased, and you could actually see it by the lack of that damn twinkle in his eyes. However there was absolutely nothing he could actively do to separate them without looking way to meddlesome, therefor losing whatever trust Henry had on him. A manipulator he might be, but he knew he had to remain subtle, and the subtlest thing he could possibly do in this situation was approach Henry's parents, something he couldn't actually do since they were the ones who encouraged Henry to get close to Corvino in the first place.

The second best thing he was able to do was get the heads of the different houses to encourage other students to befriend Carlo; the more friends he had to occupy his time, the less time he had to influence Henry in any way or form. This was made easier when Carlo actually attended the try outs for the Hufflepuff Quiditch team for the chaser spot. (1)

Soon after his acceptance, and after they won their first game by a difference of 260 point, even though Chang got the snitch in the end, Carlo found himself being quite popular within his house, and somewhat outside as well. Even with the Ravenclaw team, who begrudgingly accepted that they were more of the academic sort rather than sporty, and held a somewhat bitter respect for him for being good in both fields. Dumbledore's hopes about this preventing him from interacting with Henry fell once he learnt that Carlo was still tutoring the young Potter.

.-._.-._.

Soon it was Halloween, and as the whole school was in the middle of the feast, they were interrupted by the appearance of Carlo's familiar. And even though most of the magical world knew a lot about the enigma that was Carlo Corvino by now, including the fact that he had a thunderbird as his familiar, everyone was still in awe at seeing the mythical avian.

"What a surprise Valkyrie"—said Carlo without a care of everyone else's reaction. He noticed that his familiar was carrying a letter—"Oh, I see"—he took the letter and read it while Valkyrie, as he had called the thunderbird, ate from his plate. He had to suppress a smirk as he read Horus' report.

Just as he had planned the shade had been waiting inside the Chamber of Secrets and managed to place a tracker on the diary so that they could find it even if the female Weasley got rid of it. After that he had allowed Ginny to release the Basilisk and perform the first attack on Mrs. Norris. He needed the first attack to happen at the very least for certain events to happen as well, namely the dueling club; he was hoping to gain more support from the students by showcasing his skills.

The letter also gave him an update on the progress the shades were making in the building of his headquarters. He was not fool, he knew that the possibility of Voldemort returning before what the journal said, existed. So he was preparing to fight the war from his own front, since he wasn't about to side with Dumbledore's order or the Ministry.

He had sent the shades on a hunt for an adequate place to locate themselves. They had found it by the end of September, a place quite away from civilization, 18.1 miles northwest of the nearest town and nowhere in sight of any road. They had source of water and food from the nearby lakes, Loch ma Stac being the biggest and the nearest one, and the Guisachan Forest, their headquarter would be right in between and the best part was that apparently a small magical node was there, so they could place powerful wards without too much trouble. Horus expected the building to be finished by the end of January, and once it was, Carlo had plans already in place for the creation of at least two more shades. (2)

"That's a beautiful bird Carlo"—someone interrupted his reading—"what's its name?"—it was Susan Bones, the niece of the head of the DMLE, who had talked; she was accompanied by Hannah Abbott.

"I guess I should thank you for that compliment since Valkyrie can't do it herself. Should I assume that you know what kind of bird she is?"—Susan seemed unaffected by his cold tone, most Hufflepuff were since they had had since the beginning of the year to get used to his demeanor. The redhead shook in the negative to his question.

"I had heard that you had a thunderbird as your familiar, and I suppose that the way it…she arrived should be a huge clue, but I have never seen one before, so I couldn't be sure"—she said. Carlo raised an eyebrow at her skepticism.

"It is a thunderbird"—said Ernie Macmillan a couple of seats away—"my grandfather saw one when he was in America. He took a photo of it and hung it in our manor's lounge, but I thought they were smaller."—Valkyrie seemed to be upset by that last part, but hunger won against anger and she kept eating. This made Carlo realize that while the discussion was going on, the bird had almost emptied his plate, it seemed he would need to visit the kitchens later. He put the letter away and was about to start eating when the food banished from all the tables, he sighed—_yep, definitely going to visit the kitchens._

.-._.-._.

Later that night there was quite a commotion in the second floor, Carlo knew the reason so he didn't bother with it and went to eat instead. The rumor mill took care of informing him anyway.

Soon it was time for the winter break; time that he used to go visit the building site of his headquarters. It seemed that the shades had decided to build it after the famed fortified cities all over Europe, namely the Palmanova fortress city. The place was big enough to host an army, good enough for what Carlo had in mind for the future. It was during this time that the wards were erected and keyed to him by way of blood rituals, the same kind of rituals used in old times to key a property to a certain family, like the ones protecting the Corvino properties in Italy that prevented him from claiming anything belonging to the actual family. By the end of the break, the HQ was for the most part finished and the wards protected it from being intruded in.

Unlike Hogwarts there was no secret way to get inside, no shortcut or anything of the sort. The shades had taken their task seriously and built it so that there was only one way in and one way out, and it was hell trying to get in if you weren't welcome since the wards were for the most part aggressive rather than defensive. Be it by air, up front or underground, if you managed to get pass the walls, it would be covered in your own blood and exhausted.

Shortly after he returned, by the middle of January, there was a notice in every house's billboard about the dueling club that was going to be started by the fraud, Lockhart. Carlo couldn't help but smirk when he thought of broadcasting his skill and gaining more awestruck supporters for his future endeavors.

He already had a considerable amount of pull within Ravenclaw due to his academic prowess, in Slytherin as well because of his noble status and possible political power if the Wizengamot accepted to integrate him. In Hufflepuff because of all of the previous ones along with him being a Quidditch player of the house's team. Now, if he proved his abilities in combat he would probably gain more clout within Gryffindor than he currently had by being Henry's tutor, which wasn't much really.

However, the dueling club also was the signal for something else. It was finally time to get rid of the diary. He had informed his shades of this and they used the two way cabinet to get inside the school. A few days before the Dueling Club actually happened, Pedrolino had acquired the diary from Ginny Weasley, while Horus and Segene led the Basilisk into a chase pass the wards before rendering it unconscious and transporting it to the headquarters, and Arlecchino, along with the rest of the Zanni did the same for the Acromantula colony deep in the forest. By the end of the month he would have two new and really powerful shades along with the first battalion of his shades army.

.-._.-._.

The day of the dueling club finally arrived and with it, the embarrassing performance of one Gilderoy Lockhart against Snape. After which the failure decided to try and get the attention away from him by proposing a duel between Henry and a student chosen by Severus.

"Mr. Corvino, if you would please come fort"—it seemed that Snape decided that the easiest way to humiliate Henry was by choosing the top student as his opponent. It went against what the journals said would happen, but it wasn't as if he expected them to hold much truth after all the changes he had done.

Carlo walked up to the platform and turned to face Henry, who seemed to be a bit nervous.—"Don't worry Henry, this is just a training exercise, besides, we will get to see how much my tutoring has helped you"—some muttering could be heard after this statement. It seemed not many knew of Carlo tutoring Henry.

"Go easy on me Carlo"—said Henry taking a stance.

"I don't think I would be able to determine your progress if I did, so no"—he took out his dagger and prepared to whip his twin's ass.

"Well…"—said Lockhart, eyeing Carlo's wand nervously. It was one thing to see it in class, but in a duel it was a completely different thing—"remember, there must not be any physical contact, only spells"—Carlo rolled his eyes but nodded nonetheless.—"Alright then. You can begin."

Carlo had to sigh at Henry's launching the first attack as soon as the signal was given; the boy was a Gryffindor through and through. He decided to show off and instead of using a spell he willed his magic to act and bend reality by creating a vacuum right in the way of Henry's stunner, provoking it to disperse before it even got to travel half the distance between them. He still had to do the wand movement, no doubt Dumbledore would be watching this later and he wasn't about to reveal all his secrets, but the silent casting was enough to stun the whole room.

He got out of his musing and retaliated by sending a wave of air, Henry was barely able to see the distortion in time to raise a shield and protect himself. Next Carlo sent another wave, this time in the form of a spear, followed by two more waves like the first one. Henry's shield fell to the spear shaped wave and was struck by the two following. All you could see was how the first one sent him flying outside of the platform and the second propelled him towards the wall, he fell and groaned in pain after the punishment.

"Let that be a lesson, that if you're going to make the first move you never give your opponent space to breathe"—said Carlo to his groaning twin—"Either you take them down strong like you should have done, or you take an opening and take them down fast as I did with you."

After that, the dueling club went on by a series of small practice duels between the students. Henry was paired with Draco Malfoy by Lockhart, lest the famous savior suffer more under his watch, while Carlo was paired with a fourth year student, no doubt a half assed attempt at keeping things equilibrated. He went easier on his opponent than he did Henry, but that was because he really had wanted to kick Henry's ass, while this fourth year guy had done nothing to him.

.-._.-._.

Even though it wasn't much, his performance during the dueling club had indeed gained him a few supporters within Gryffindor, now with this he could be informed of almost anything that went on inside any of the houses, and he had extended his circle of influence to about 80 percent, maybe 90, of the next generation. This was a big step towards his goal of becoming one of the greatest influences of the magical society, which, along with becoming magically powerful would make his revenge possible.

The rest of the year went on without any more noteworthy incidents, although Lockhart had a small 'accident' where he broke all his limbs' bones when he fell from the stairs…accident, right. Well, maybe he shouldn't have tried to obliviate Carlo when he pointed out all the incongruences in his books.

.-._.-._.

"Good bye Carlo"—came Susan's voice as she passed by his compartment in the Hogwarts express.

"See you next year"—added her friend Hannah.

"See you then"—answered Carlo as he prepared to get out.

"Hey Carlo!"—called another voice, Carlo had to suppress a groan, he really didn't want to deal with Henry more than he had to.

"Hello Henry"

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to visit my house this summer? My mom wanted to meet you and thank you for helping me with my grades"—Carlo rolled his eyes when Henry wasn't looking, and he was about to refuse when Henry continued talking—"Although, it wouldn't really be my house. I mean, Uncle Sirius has said to call it my home as well, but it's not really mine and I'm rambling right now. Whatever, so it wouldn't be in my house exactly, they are fixing ours after an infestation of pixies made a mess of it while my parents were out searching for…"—here Henry seemed to deflate quite abruptly, he quickly hid it though and kept talking—"Anyway, what do you say?"

"Hmm, I actually have things to do Henry."—Even if this was a perfect opportunity to get inside the Black's house and get the locket, he didn't want to commit to a full summer stay with the Potters, no thank you.

"Well, what about visiting during my birthday? I mean, you can come at least on day, can't you? By that time I believe our house will be fixed"—damn!

"Your birthday, it's the June the 31st right? I don't think I will even be in Europe at the time; I'm planning on travelling through Asia this summer. How about I visit you in a week? I can't be here for your birthday, but I still would meet your family, I would send your present later on of course."

"Really? That's too bad, but I guess it would be fun to travel the whole summer and get to know many places. In a week then? I will owl you to confirm, is that alright?"

"Fine by me, we should arrange somewhere for your family to pick me up, since I don't know where our Uncle's house is."

"We can fix the details later, I must talk with my parents first to see what they say. I will owl you, see you then."—and with that Henry left the train. Carlo was greeted outside the steam powered machine by a total of 9 shades.

The two most recent noteworthy additions to his army came along with his normal entourage. _Argetburthro _the shade created with Slytherin's basilisk as the base form, the result was quite impressive. He was as tall as Arlecchino, but he was lean rather than being bulky like the half giant shade, he was also bald, so he was technically the only non-redheaded shade, his eyes were permanently narrowed and long, giving the impression that he was of Asian origins, they had named him Nagato just for kicks.

The other was Aragog, whose true name was _Freohrhljödhr. _He was of a more normal height, being just below Pedrolino and the other Zannin, he had short slick hair, not unlike Snape's, and a small beard that had taken the shape of the Acromantula's pincers, he had 6 arms too, a vestige of his original form, though 4 of those arms where hidden within his robe to look more normal in public. The whole acromantula colony had been converted into shades as well, but Carlo hadn't bothered to learn their names and simply bound them to do his bidding and never try to harm him or those he considered family.

"Well, let's go, we have things to do"—said Carlo, and with that the group departed the station.

.-._.-._.

**(1) For those interested, you can find links to images of Carlo's quiditch gear in my profile, except for the broom.**

**(2) This is the place g. co/maps/v59vh (just eliminate the spaces between the words and symbols)**

**Argetburthro=silver born.**

**Freohrhljödhr=silent death.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So, I was planning on updating my story Shinobi Bender first, but I have to rewrite the whole chapter and that's really frustrating, which is why I just keep procrastinating. So, I have no real excuse for not updating SB, I'm just being lazy. I will instead update this and Werefox. I'm sorry for my readers, who have been waiting for a SB update, but I just don't find the energy to actually rewrite the chapter, I have only one quarter of the chapter done, and it has been 3 weeks since I started. Anyway, here is the chapter.**

.-._.-._.

Ch. 11: Like an old man.

Carlo's entrance to the platform at King's Cross was received with awed silence from the present families. After a whole year, word had spread, not only about his noble status, but also of his magical prowess. Everyone knew by now that he had several Shades under his command, six of which were with him at the moment, and a thunderbird as his familiar; thus the rumor mill had it that he was possibly the second coming of Albus Dumbledore, or maybe even Merlin.

Carlo had to suppress a laugh at that thought. He might be talented thanks to his early training and possess a better understanding of magic thanks to his future self's help; but he admitted that he was nowhere as skilled as they were said to be. Of course that he would never admit it out loud, his objective relied on people thinking of him as a prodigy of some sort. Besides, it wasn't like he wouldn't reach that level eventually.

He also needed to keep the impression that he was an ideal leader for when the next war started. He, unfortunately, had no way to get access to Nagini, Voldemort's familiar and seventh Horrocrux; as such it was inevitable that Voldemort would eventually return.

That thought brought him to another matter, and he had a hard time preventing his smirk from surfacing. While Voldemort's seventh horrocrux was still out of his reach, Carlo had finally got hold of all the others.

At the end of his second year at Hogwarts, Carlo had three of the six items in his possession. And he had been able to obtain the locket at the beginning of the summer break when he was invited to the Black manor to visit Henry and meet his parents.

.-._.-._.

Carlo was waiting for Lily Potter in the Leaky Cauldron. Henry had sent him a letter that she would get him there to take him to his godfather's house, where he would then be treated to a meal by the family as a token of appreciation for his help in improving Henry's grades. He had been waiting for 10 minutes when the establishment's chimney flared green and said woman stepped out of the flames and approached him with a charming smile.

"You must be Carlo. I'm Lily, Henry's mother, a pleasure to meet you"—she said kindly.

"The pleasure is mine ma'am. Now, I understand we are to head to your house?"—he asked his mother, who seemed somewhat dejected at being addressed as a stranger. Lily herself didn't know why she felt bad at being called ma'am by a child. She had been called that before by other friends of Henry's, but this was the first time she felt hurt by it. She pushed that thought away from her mind and answered Carlo's question.

"Unfortunately our house is undergoing maintenance at the moment. We are going to a friend's house instead, is that a problem?"

"Not at all Lady Potter, now that you mention it, Henry told me the same. I must have forgotten about it. Shall we depart?"—Lily was taken aback by Carlo's formal speech, but she guessed that it shouldn't come as a surprise, seeing how he was a noble pureblood and all. She nodded and instructed him to take hold of her hand so she could apparate them both to the Black manor.

Once he arrived he was greeted by Lord Black, that is to say his godfather, Sirius, and Henry. Along with Ron Weasley who was visiting at the moment and was looking at him sourly, probably jealous of him for some reason. Not that he cared about the prat.

After a meal and meager talk about school and whatnot, Carlo asked for direction to the loo. Once inside he silenced the room and called Kreatcher.

"Mater Sirius' guest has called for Kreatcher. What is disgraceful guest wanting with a Black family's elf?"—asked the insane elf.

"Shut up, you filthy mongrel. I called you for a reason; you shall do what I tell you quickly. Bring me the locket!"—growled Carlo, making his eyes glow. A trick he learned the previous summer. Kreatcher's eyes widened at the mention of said trinket.

"How does disgraceful guest know about master Regulus' locket?"

"Doesn't matter, now, bring it here and I promise you I will destroy it."

"You can destroy master Regulus' locket? How? I tried everything but I couldn't"—cried the elf, hopeful tears running down his cheeks.

"Geez, just do it Kreatcher. We can't let anyone be suspicious, and if I take too much time here they will come looking for me."—Kreatcher nodded and disappeared with a loud crack. Not two seconds later he was back with the item in his hands.

"Will graceful guest be destroying the locket now?"—Carlo raised an eyebrow at the change of attitude but decided not to dwell on it. He shook his head.

"No, I can't right now. The magical backlash would alert your family of it and I can't risk it. Besides, this is only one of six objects that must be destroyed. Your master Regulus only knew about the locket, however I know about the others and I will destroy them together. I only need one more and then I will destroy them. But rest assured, you will know when it's done."—with that he ordered the elf to leave. As soon as Kreatcher left he took down the privacy wards and got out of the bathroom. Just in time too, as Henry was on his way to get him.

"You took a long time in there, is everything fine?"—his brother asked.

"Yes, just drank a lot of butterbeer before coming here."

After that, he had to endure a few more hours in the presence of the Potters and Black, talking about meaningless things, such as his travels and his companions; Lily couldn't resist asking about Valkyrie. Finally he was able to leave by nightfall and Lily insisted on taking him back, he accepted the offer immediately, least he shows his dislike for them.

.-._.-._.

After that, it was only a matter of time before he came into possession of the cup and he would have 97 percent of Voldemort's soul. With 2 percent already destroyed back when he obtained Flamel's stone, and the last 1 percent divided between Voldemort himself and Nagini. With so little of his own soul inside his body, it was no wonder that Voldemort was insane.

The rest of the summer was spent traveling through Asia in company of Brighella and Pulcinella. So Carlo could take part in several combat competitions to gain more experience. Sometimes he won, sometimes he didn't, but all in all it was a good learning for him.

And while he was in Asia, his other shades took care of expanding his army and augmenting his wealth in preparations for the war. Horus took care of expanding and organizing his ever growing army of shades, just as he had done in the previous timeline, though he started much earlier this time. When Carlo returned to England, his army had grown from a few tens to a couple of thousands.

His Acromantula shades had assaulted several other colonies and thus their numbers grew. With their multiple limbs they became the main magic casters of his army, able to launch up to six spells at the same time. Nagato on the other hand, amassed and created more serpentine shades, ranging from cobras to magical species like runespoors and coatls, these shades would become his main assassins and information gatherers, given their sneakiness.

Lastly, Segene, collected several magic resistant species and converted them to shades as well, Erumpents, Nemean Lions, and Dragons, just to mention a few; these would become the infantry and cavalry of his forces. The governments of the world were bound to notice the disappearance of several magical creatures all of a sudden, and were now investigating the problem, though they were unable to link it to Carlo's group, or anyone for that matter.

Arlecchino, on the other hand, took care of using the Philosopher's stone to increase Carlo's wealth by creating gold and investing it. This in turn was the reason they were able to get the cup inside Bellatrix Vault when, by the third week of the summer break, they finally bought out the Lestrange's debts and the Goblins granted access to their vaults. It took several millions of galleons to do so. A big indentation on his finances, but it eliminated the problem of stealing the horrocrux.

Pedrolino took care of setting several non-magical defenses around the HQ, just in case. And finally Mezzettino took care of creating what would later be Carlo's army mounts. By using Basilisks, Erumpents and Nundus he created several chimeras. The result impressed Carlo when he saw them for the first time.

The beasts were the size of the erumpent, but retained the nundu's body; except for the basilisk's tail. They also had a strip of basilisk scales on their back, running from their forehead to the tip of their tail. On the tip of their nose they presented small horns that presumably held the same explosive nature than the erumpent's. They also had retractable fangs like the basilisk and breathed sickness like the nundu. Death at its finest.

Carlo had wanted to convert a few of the beast into shades, thinking that they would become quite the soldiers for him, however that wasn't to be. When they tried to convert one of the chimeras into a shade, it split into the three different creatures that it was composed of and they died not much later due to the forced separation. They decided against trying again.

With all this, Carlo felt confident that, once the war started, he would be more than ready to face it. And once it was all said and done, he would become the next leader of magical Britain, and with that his vengeance would be all too sweet. But he was getting ahead of himself, he still had to wait before he could realize that goal.

.-._.-._.

As he ended his reminiscing of the happenings of summer, he notices a female glaring at him from outside of his compartment. She couldn't have been there for long because, knowing her, she would just have opened the door and entered without so much as a 'by your leave', which was exactly what she did as soon as Carlo noticed her.

"Corvino"—she growled out his name as she put her things into the compartment and sat down in front of him.

"Li?"—said an amused Carlo with his eyebrow raised questioningly—"To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"—this only seemed to infuriate her more.

"DON'T get cute with me, Corvino. You're going to help me this year. It's bad enough that a Hufflepuff, of all things, has held the top student spot for two consecutive years. Not only that, but a Griffindor is the second place and now because of you another Griffindor has taken my spot as third! I'm the top Ravenclaw and it shames not only me, but the whole house that none of the three spots is held by one of us. You will help me reach the second spot at least, or else…"

"Or else what, Li? Will you kick my ass? I would like to see you try. I remember a certain Italian who beat you in Korea this summer. Besides, what do I get if I do help you?"—she growled at him for that slight, but soon a smirk occupied her face.

"Well, I remember a certain Italian who seemed quite fond of someone's mother's cuisine this summer"—she said, throwing back his own words—"if said Italian were to help said mother's daughter, said daughter might be willing to prepare the food her mother taught her how to cook for the Italian guy, who is so fond of said food."

"Hmm, you drive a hard bargain, Miss Li. But your mother's cooking is not enough."—he said that, but certainly she wasn't wrong.

While in china he had grown quite fond of their food, especially the spicy dishes, and when he came back to England he had searched high and low for a restaurant that offered such delicacies. He found several, but the best by far was the one run by the Li family. At first he thought they were muggles, but then he noticed that the waitress who was taking his order was none other than the girl he had shared a compartment with last year.

She seemed quite incensed at seeing him, but she kept doing her work and took his order. When he had enough of her glaring, he had asked her about the attitude and she only became angrier for it, she then ranted for a while about some tournament in Korea, and he remembered that he had also seen her in said tournament, though he hadn't recognized her at the time. She had been his opponent in the second or third round and he had beaten her, he had lost in the next round though.

When she had started ranting about how he had also beaten her in academics her father had interfered and took her away. He then asked for forgiveness for his daughter's attitude, that's when he finally learnt her name, Su Li.

As it turns out, the family was composed of Su Li, her muggle mother who ran the kitchen and her father who was a muggleborn wizard that had decided to live in the muggle world when the wizarding world denied him a work for not being a pureblood.

After that day, Carlo made a point of eating there at least once every three days; he got a sick pleasure of angering Su every time, until her father decided to take his orders instead.

"Grrr, fine, what else do you want?"—she asked, taking him out of his reminiscing. Darn, he was like an old man, getting lost in memories and all that. So much he didn't notice when the train started moving.

"Well, there is nothing I really want, Su. It's more of what you have to offer."—he answered.

"I have several tomes of Chinese magic, I will let you borrow them"

"No dice. I have quite a collection of knowledge from different cultures, Chinse tomes included, I doubt you will be able to offer much more"—she seemed interested in said collection, but decided not to comment on it for now. She needed to convince him first.

"Damn. Well, you lost the round after you fought me, so you obviously still need to work on your skills, I will train with you"

"Nope, you would still gain more from the practices than me. Besides, my guards are not just for show, they also help me train in combat and magic."

"You're learning from shades how to fight? How come you lost then? Never mind that. Dammit! What will it take for you to help me? Stupid Italian."—she muttered the last part, but Carlo still heard her.

"Calling me stupid isn't exactly helping your cause, Su"—he said amusedly—"How about I help you, you cook me the food you told me about once or twice a week and you still owe me something else. We will determine what later in the year, as we seem to be unable to reach a conclusion just yet."

"Sigh, fine"—she said dejectedly—"I will need to investigate where the kitchens are though, I won't be able to cook otherwise"

"No problem, being a Hufflepuff has its advantages."

"You know where they are?"—she asked somewhat surprised.

"I will show you the first time you cook for me, so, this Friday"

"Sigh, alright, but you better help me reach second place, if not first"

"Second, definitely not going to give you my spot, Li"—he said smirking.

"Guessed as much"

"Hi Carlo!"—said a new voice and Carlo grimaced inwardly when he heard it.

"Hello, Henry"—he answered, hiding his dislike for his brother as much as he could.—"how was the rest of your summer?"

"It was great. I don't know why, but mother was much happier this summer than all previous ones. Father too, but he is less emotive so it's harder to tell. Thanks for the book you sent, I don't quite understand many of the things there, but my mom was quite glad you gifted it to me, said it would be awfully useful for arithmancy. By the way, you never said what optative subjects you were taking."

"Oh, I'm taking care of magical creatures and arithamncy as well, I would have taken runes too, but I would rather study that at my own pace, not my forte."

"I see, we'll see each other later, I guess."—he looked at Su and then at Carlo again—"nice"—and then he left.

"Sigh, I better not start hearing rumors or there will be hell to pay for Henry"—said Carlo.

"Ditto"—said Su while taking out a book to read, Carlo shrugged his shoulders and did the same. The rest of the travel was then spent in silence.

.-._.-._.

**Tell me what you think please.**


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